


Connection Lost

by MonroseMeadows



Category: Watch_Dogs, Wrencus - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Drama, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Revenge, whatamIdoing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-05-13 22:39:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 24,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14757632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonroseMeadows/pseuds/MonroseMeadows
Summary: Implied sexual intimacy between Defalt and Wrench, Implied relationship between Wrench and Marcus.Surprise Vigilante cameo.*DISCONTINUED*





	1. Motivation

"Okay, I think I'm gonna officially call it a night. I'm starting to see double." Marcus spoke through the lingering yawn that slipped past his lips. He pushed his torso up, making sure to not drop half-emptied bowl of chips that had rested on there. His hands wandered across the shape of the small couch's cushioning in search of the remote, only to find it clasped between the hands of a tattooed engineer. Marcus' slowed his movements, hoping to not stir the sleeping man as he stood up and stretched his muscles. Judging by the silence that now occupied the hacker space, Sitara and Josh had gathered their belongings and left a while ago. Damn, Marcus and Wrench must've really been mesmerized by their choice of movie for the night, as Marcus' couldn't recall hearing either of the two saying their goodbyes at any given point. Soft snores oozed from the sides of the blonde's mask - and Marcus found himself wondering how he could find comfort in sleeping with that thing attached - but quickly discarded the thought and walked over to the desk and leaving the bowl on its surface. Everything was silent and peaceful, and Marcus debated waking up Wrench - finding the serene state of slumber he was in rather endearing. From the firm way his small hands held on to the television remote, to the rhythmic manner in which his clothed chest went through the motions of rising and falling. His black hood slumped down to the nape of his neck, revealing more of the rebel's ash blonde locks. 

A soft smile adorned the black man's lips, as he brought his hand over to the anarchist's bony shoulder - gently resting the palm against the faded fabric of his DedSec hoodie. The smell of beer still settled on the man, though it would probably have been less subtle if it hadn't been for his mask. The humming of intelligible words against the mask's internal layer, Wrench slowly roused from his dormancy - a gathering of LED-lights jumping to life under the visor's hardened-plastic. Marcus' straightened from his bent position, and gave the other hacker some space as he hoisted both arms in to the air above him. "Hate to disturb you, Wrench - but I figured you might appreciate crashing in an actual bed, instead of this couch, man." It earned him an appreciative ' ! ! ' in return, leaving the blonde to take in the, mostly empty, hacker space. The television screen colored to a pitch black, and the decorating computer display monitors, void of content. Marcus had already put on his leather jacket, and stood near the staircase - adjusting the shoulder strap of his bag. Wrench followed suit, flicking the main power supply switch, before thundering up the many metallic steps. The two men said their goodbyes, topped off with a final fist-bump, and both headed in separate directions.

Marcus kicked off his sneakers, the front door to his apartment falling shut behind him. His body felt like it needed a shower, yet his exhausted brain directed the man's body to make a bee-line towards the master bedroom. Yawing through the motions of peeling off his items of clothing, not bothered where they happened to land on the floor, and vocalizing a pleased moan once his heavy-feeling body hit the soft mattress. With his phone placed on the nightstand, secure and forgotten, the black hacker felt his eyelids droop down -- and was sent into a blissful state of sleep, with his brain's best regards. However, at the other end of the suburban neighborhood, Wrench had just stepped out his jeans, replacing them with a looser pair of black sweats. His trademark DedSec hoodie and mask hung draped over a random desk chair. He made his way over to the stereo installation, pressing a handful of buttons before dropping down a disk in the extended CD holder. Shortly after, Connecting resounded in the man's work space - and he moved over to the computer system mounted on to the center of the far east wall of the garage. His body moving to the rhythm of the synth wave playlist, sending the screen that had just illuminated the small surface of the room, an approving nod of the head. He pulled a chair closer to the monitor, and pulled out a concealed surface, rolling it into place below the desk's surface, connecting the two with a few clicks -- his hands now gently tracing the edges and shapes of the many keys exposed to his fingertips.

The webpage that opened upon browser start-up being DedSec's very own application forum. He pushed some stray strands of ash blonde hair out of his eyes - scanning the forum's comments page for something, anything, whatever, to keep him occupied for the time it took for his main server to load up and run a root- and boot analysis in the background. The majority of the forum board's comment section was laced with the most random of sub-forums, some bringing a subtle grin to his lips as his eyes hovered over the titles. _Best Memes 2018, WATCH_DOGE - such hacking, much connected, very wow, I shoved my finger up my ass and made my dog sniff it, newtothishalp?, Any cute hackers around able to link their large connection with my backdoor hack?_ His voice grew in volume as laughter now escaped his lips, and he brought a hand up to muffle it. Ah, the very finest the internet had to offer, right in front of him. He debated leaving a few comments here and there, hoping to increase in TROLL-XP, but decided against it -- feeling it would send him down a never ending rabbit hole. Instead, he backed out of the website, and hit up the homepage. A variety of suggested articles were displayed before him, and after a little bit of lazy scrolling, did his movements come to an abrupt stop. 

**'Body found on ctOS ground. Cause of death unknown. CEO Miranda Chavez releases first statement on the shocking find.'**

_The body of Glenn Whittaker, 21, was found near the San Francisco main office building of Blume's ctOS sister-company. Police ran an area search for any leads to the shocking find, with head of the SFPD, Bartholomew Abbey, labeling the occurrence as a possible suicide. No further information has been released on the case, and with Blume not yet handing over the body to the government, this mystery is yet to be uncovered. More on page 12._

Wrench's throat immediately clamped up, all color draining from his face as he revisited the short exposition story over and over again. The mood-music drowned out by the increasing volume of his own heart thundering against his ribcage, and a wave of unexplained heat spreading through his body in mass. His small frame jolted up in silence, only for a roar from the gut to he unleashed thereafter, and a chair sent flying through the garage. The blonde tried to keep his shaking fists in check, but ended up hammering them on to every object within range. What he was greeted with upon calming down, was an entirely rearranged furnishing, thrown about pieces of metal spread across the cemented floor, and the cries of help coming from smashed light bulbs. His breathing ragged and irregular, a hue of red taking up the majority of his pale skin. "YOU FUCKERS WILL PAY!" 

\- - - 

"I brought coffee and bagels!" Marcus said in a singing voice as he dropped a small plastic bag on the rounded table centred in the hacker space. Looks of appreciation were shot his way, and soon three hackers had gathered around -- coffee held firmly in hand, and mid-bite of bagel. Small talk had commenced for a good 15 minutes, and when Marcus offered to get rid of the trash, he noticed one remaining bagel and coffee container. Untouched, as it had remained within the gentle wrap of the plastic bag they had been traveling in. "Yo, anyone seen or heard from Wrench today?" With the food items now stored in the tiny fridge, the black hacker turned around to find Sitara and Josh shrugging matter-of-factly at the question. Guess that was an undeniable 'no'. He opened his laptop on the table, scrolling through a few pages worth of less-than-innocent memes, then sunk back against the backrest of the chair. "Yo, check this man.." He finally spoke, alerting his friends to the information he had stumbled upon. Three pairs of eyes rapidly darting down the collection of words on the news report, accompanied by some taken-aback gasps and groans. The news on this newly discovered death had spread rapidly, and had even made its round to DedSec's personal forums. Discussion boards solemnly dedicated to the suspicious 'suicide', and all of this within such a short time. The article's release date had been Thursday, the 24th of this month -- just three days ago and it had already gained in Blume-related conspiracy theories. 

"I never know how to react to these kinds of things." Marcus spoke truthfully, averting his eyes from the screen - then removed himself from the table all together and paced around in small circles. "Another possible Blume victim.. Man, and he was of our age too." At the other end of the table, Sitara gave the man a short-lived nod of the head, mutely readjusting the parka-styled scarf around her neck. "We don't know for sure if it is a Blume related death. This person just might have chosen the ctOS building by mere coincidence." Marcus shot her a direct look that spoke for itself, and said women raised her arms unknowingly. "That sounds like too much of a coincidence, Sitara. Fuck me.. Blume hasn't even released the body yet. The fuck do they gain from hiding it?" The possibilities were endless, and with a wild card corporation such as Blume, the cards dealt were never fair game. Their was an exterior motive behind withholding a dead body found on their grounds, of all places. It led to a masked truth, damaging information on their operations, dirt just waiting to be dug up on their fucked up gameplans. Glenn Whittaker, the name rang no immediate bells - which meant he wasn't mentioned in records on Blume and ctOS. An insider, maybe? But what could have driven him to the act of taking his own life? If he was linked to Blume from within the system, his ass would have been guarded by the likes of ctOS. 

Footsteps reverberated down the length of a staircase, a frail body making a direct B-line for one of the main operating systems. Marcus watched the hooded hacker start up a series of code sequences, and upon closer inspection, revealed to have been a direct connection to ctOS CCTV footage from within the main area. The insider-view didn't show much, civilians going about their every day routines - yet that didn't stop the hacker from probing every surveillance system in range. "Anything in particular you're looking for, Wrench?" No direct answer came his way, thus Marcus walked over to the man and leaned down to get a closer look on the CCTV footage displayed. "The coordinates don't match." For a moment the engineer paused and turned to look at the other hacker - his mask empty of expression, not even the default expression visible. It didn't go unnoticed by the black hacker, and instead of prying, he reached over for the keyboard to type in a new set of coordinates, that opened up a secluded camera near the main ctOS building. "Figured that's what you were looking for. Guess you've heard the news, huh..?" Still no response of any known kind from the blonde, as he had shifted into a more focused state of mind. Shielded eyes running up and down the images played out on the screen, and fingers racing to send the camera to move over to others within its very own viewing-range. More ground was covered, though left unclear as to what reason. Marcus' straightened his back, and burried his hands in the pockets of his dark jeans. "I got you a bagel and coffee, bro. Take a little break from the screens and relax." 

Something inside the anarchist snapped, and the chair rolled down a stretch of flooring when he had jumped to his feet.

"You did not just tell me to fucking relax!" Marcus took a step back, his hands held up in a defensive manner - his dark eyes following Wrench as he trekked from the left to the right in a nervous pace. "No. I will not fucking relax. Blume is going down in flames, that much is a promise. And I will do it --" He shot a glare at, and past the hackers seated behind Marcus. " --With or without your help." He turned back to the screen, pointing a bony finger at the screen. "I have found my destination. Barbarians are standing near the gates, waiting to blow those fucking Romans to shreds. Right there, on those grounds, they have given birth to hell in the flesh." The three hackers watched their chaotic friend fumble with a few EMD explosives, when Marcus had grabbed a hold of the blonde's thin bicep. "Whoa, whoa, whoa.. Wrench, dude. Look, we're all affected by this." The black man turned to gesture at both Sitara and Josh, then turned back to face Wrench. "But declaring war like that isn't gonna do anyone any good. We have no strategy yet, it will be a suicide mission."

Wrench freed himself from the other man's grasp, and gave him a curt nod. "Exactly." He then stamped past them, his hand touching the arm-support of the staircase, before stopping.  
"I thought we were a fucking team. But I can do this on my own too. Guess it gets personal then."


	2. the located target..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Hacking music Vol.5 (HARDWARE)
> 
> Have any of you ever thought up a short plot to a story, that you are gradually fleshing out throughout chapters,  
> and after doing some simple math, come to the conclusion that everything that is cannon, actually adds up in your AU work?
> 
> For example: I planned on using the 2003 blackout caused by Raymond, to play a role in this plot,  
> and if I give Wrench the age of 28 in 2018, he would have been roughly 13 in 2003. -- Which would work perfectly for what I had in mind for him.
> 
> *is glad the pieces sometimes fall together so nicely*
> 
> Also, first introduction to Defalt in this series. -- Obey the RAT!

Fragile explosives juggled between two hands, pools of blue fixated on their makeup. A direct attack at Blume sure sounded justified, but in the real world it held no ground. There wasn't an easy way in, and even if that was the only set-back, there was no guarantee on what would happen once he found himself in the rat's lair. The grounds were heavily surveilled - yes, he possessed enough fire power to move through and past them - they behaved like video game NPCS. Unlimited spawn-commands. Wrench had made peace with the idea of dying for DedSec's cause, and there was little going to deter him from doing exactly that -- but sometimes God mode wasn't an option. And this version of the game, unfortunately, had no TRAINER support. As he ran the options through his mind, he found himself unable to find a secure way around the wall of guards. He had analyzed the CCTV footage extensively, and mapped out the areas they circled -- but that was no assurance of safety. He had envisioned himself mowing the place down with a military tank, taking everything and everyone down with him on his path of destruction. But then reality stepped in, and reminded him that acquiring such a vehicle would prove to be far above his skillset. Heck, he'd be dead before even as much as taking a closer look at a tank - so that was a definite no-go. Rigging the place with remote bombs and grenades sure sounded tempting, but that included the risk of damaging Glenn's body. And there wasn't a chance in hell, that he'd be held responsible for that -- especially not since it had been claimed by Blume, and everybody knew Blume jacked off the government's throbbing dick under the table. 

He had made that promise to himself and Glenn. One of them would find a way out and escape - leave that God awful place behind, to never look back and blow the whistle. Blume had to be stopped, and he swore it would only be a matter of time before their downfall would decorate his memory. A memory he would cherish until he breathed out his final breath, and perhaps even cherish as much as the memory of his time spent with Glenn. The hacker's face fell, his hands now static as they rested on his thighs. He hadn't thought about Glenn for years, and now the name alone sent shivers down his spine. Glenn had convinced him to get the hell out - told him to put his own safety first, and to never look back. Wrench tightened the grip he had on the explosives, his fingers brushing against a set of rolled up cables. He did look back, but just long enough to see the red glow of the alarm-system take over the stretched out hallways. He still wasn't exactly sure how the fuck he managed to navigate his way to the outside, but once he had, he just started running. And he kept running until his feet could run no more, and his knees gave out. He had no idea what happened after that, but what he did remember was a car engine roaring towards him - and next thing he knew, he had woken up in a room lit up by dark maroon lighting - with nothing but a bright computer screen staring back at him. The blonde lifted a hand up to his face, and gently cupped the burn mark near his brow. Yeah, those bastards working with Blume would pay for all of it, and he was willing to take the risk as well. He jumped down the ledge, reattached his mask, before dashing into a field of forestation. Those fuckers would regret the day they decided to lay so much of a finger on him, and Glenn.. 

\- - 

A toned man rid his glistening face of the trademark mask, wiping some of the sweat from his brow - and spat out a volume of blood that had accumulated in his mouth. The copper taste lingering on his tongue, irritating him to no extend. He pulled his dark hood down, combed back a few strands of blood-covered hair, and pulled said hood back into place. His knee and back still sore from the metal baton that had raged over his body - and upon finding a handful of tears in the fabric of his personalized hoodie, the man kicked at the plastic container that hid under his desk. He should've known better than to get that close and personal with the Chicago Vigilante, but the moral-knight seemed like a funhouse dressed in delicious leather cosplay. How wrong he had been, and now he had to move around with a limp, like a damn cripple. Which was a minor inconvenience at best, but it still bothered him. He should've sent another decoy, but the idea of confronting Aiden Pearce in person was far too appetizing to him. Fucking asshole and his damn family-complex..

As soon as his computer had started up, and his eyes found the information it offered - a smile crept onto his pierced lips.  
"Fucking brilliant. It'll only be a matter of time before that little mouse comes out to play." He turned his attention to a second monitor, caressing the hooded figure that moved through the lens of a computer. They measure themselves up to the infamous 1990 DedSec hacktivists, but are unable to detect even the simplest of privacy breaches. The smile deepened, dangerously close to morphing into a mischievous grin, when a masked face worked his way around a wooden workbench, blissfully unaware of prying eyes following his every move. "Soon, my little rodent brother. Soon we shall reunite, and hopefully, we'll have just as much fun as we did back in the day." The man then cut the connection to the feed, and leaned back in the chair. "Nice mask, indeed." 

\- - - 

"Wrench seemed off his rockers about that whole Blume-suicide incident.. You guys think he's alright?" Marcus asked suddenly, looking up from his laptop and locating Josh and Sitara sitting across the table from him. The dark haired woman seemed to be taking a moment of reconsideration before speaking, but found herself interrupted by the youngest member of the group. "Wrench makes a lot of threats, but I'm not sure if we should dismiss the ones he made yesterday." Marcus and Sitara locked eyes, then returned to their laptops respectively. Wrench was known to be one to make the occasional loose threat, serving as a warning, rather than an actual promise on death and destruction. But there was just something off about the demeanor he showcased the day prior, and the words he had spoken sounded carefully chosen. Josh breathed out a sigh, then pushed his laptop away as to signal his intake of a needed break. Much like Marcus had two days ago, he was starting to see double, and numbers danced over his corneas - even when he closed his tired eyes. "Would it be okay if I took Wrench's bagel and coffee, guys?" His voice had sounded so hesitant - though that wasn't likely to be due to his underlying fear of said man. Granted, he did fear the anarchist to some extend, with good reason of course, but that small bit of fear wasn't strong enough to keep him from interacting with said anarchist. He knew Wrench through and through, and knew the man wasn't likely to turn on DedSec. 

Sitara turned her head, and gave the green-hooded hacker a sweet nod. It had been two days since Marcus had bought them the food and caffeine, and it didn't seem like Wrench was gonna claim his portion of it anytime soon. Heck, it did surprise her that the rebel had completely forgotten about it - Wrench was not one to eagerly pass up on free food or drinks. He was a bit of a cheap skate, and much rather leeched off of other people. Come to think of hid, for the duration of Marcus' stay within DedSec, Marcus had kept Wrench from starvation. And she was aware of Marcus' kind and caring nature probably keeping him from minding this at all, but it was a rather cheap action from Wrench. But.. As long as Marcus didn't complain, and kept bringing in the goods, neither of them were planning on addressing the elephant in the room. Josh sauntered back over to the table, and took a few careful sips from the coffee. Marcus' fingertips drummed against the table leaf for a few seconds, before Sitara's hand shot forward and pressed the man's palm down to the surface. The glare she beamed at said man, a clear message - so instead he locked his arms behind his head. 

"You have known Wrench longer than I do.. Is this how he usually reacts to these info dumps?" Josh placed the coffee container down on the table, strongly shaking his head, and checking for affirmation within Sitara. Said woman looked up and away from her screen for a moment, before leaning into Josh and taking a small bite out of the bagel. "Wrench is .. Well, Wrench. He has shown various ways of dealing with heavy stuff like this, so I'm never too sure about confronting him about anything. He might come off as withdrawn one moment, and happily seen building more explosive-components the next." Josh contributed to the conversation by adding a nod of the head, not minding to share his food with Sitara, as he held out his arm toward the woman. "The best course of action is to let Wrench be Wrench. If he doesn't speak, don't ask."


	3. trapped in the rat's lair..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Hacking Music Vol.15 (HIDDEN SERVICE)
> 
> Sorry if this is poorly written, I'm new to action sequences. That and, English not being my first language, and all those beautiful excuses.

"Keep searching the area! That little shit can't be too far."

Wrench let his head fall back and against the cemented road-block that served as cover. He attentively listened to each threat that was spat at him from different parts of the perimeter, whilst calculating an escape route at the same time. The west wing crawled with ctOS guards, with a handful of them scouring the east wing. A steady red beam slowly drew closer to him, and without warning a voice broke through the short-lived moment of silence. The sniper that lay hidden on the roof kept his aim firmly on the cement block, the sound of nearing footsteps drawing nearer and nearer with each passing second. They had surrounded him, and the blonde found himself trapped in his current hideout. If he were to make a run for it, the sniper would only take seconds to focus and fire at him. Making a run for the north wing proved to be in vain due to the wall of guards that stood on the look out. 

"He's over here! Moving in!"

Wrench cursed the fucker that had spotted him, and darted his head around in rapid turns. A central electrical processor was mounted to the wall not too far from the side entrance, if only they would give him enough time to hack into it and overheat its the electric current. Guns clicked too close for comfort, and he decided it would be now or never. Hastily he had taken out his phone, only to spit another collection of swearwords when he was rendered unable to find the right angle to establish a connection. His face dropped when a shadow colored over him, and he was staring right into the loop of a two sided barrel shotgun. His instinct screamed at him to run, do anything other than freezing up at the spot.

"Playtime's over, fucker!"

The blonde instinctively closed his eyes, already making peace with the man above -- only to find the guard exhaling loud groans of discomfort, the shotgun lowered when he moved a hand over to the headset that was attached to his military helmet. That was the work of a communication disruption, the source of which only able to have come from .. Wrench's slender body slammed into the cemented block, the remnants of an overheated electricity cabinet set ablaze, blowing thick clouds of smoke into the air. As it got harder and harder to breath, the anarchist pulled his hoodie tighter and poked his head out over the barrier. Piled up bodies laid sprawled across the perimeter, returning the silence to the grounds. Not taking any more chances by waiting for back-up to arrive, Wrench pushed his thin body over the barrier and set his feet into overdrive. He had to make a run for it, even with the voice in his head labeling him as a coward. Just a few more meters, the entrance doors were just out of his arm's reach. He could already make out the faint glow of the alarm indicators, just a few more inches ..

A bang, and then dead silence.

The sensation of heat was spreading through his chest, consuming the entirety of his core. His heart lept in his chest as his knees connected with the rough pavement, and his eardrums rendered unable to register anything but a growing velocity of static - the ringing in his ears matching up with his rapidly increasing heartbeat. Energy drained from his body in a fast pace, and soon he found himself lying face down on the ground -- a hand grasping for the fabric of his hoodie and clutching it between shaking fingers. Shaking fingers that were slowly painted a deep shade of red, faintly registered before all the lights went out and he sank into darkness. 

\- - 

"The site is rapidly growing in hits. I think the message was loud and clear."

Sitara and Josh brought their bottles of beer together, to mimic the motion in Marcus' direction. They relished in the strength of the DedSec community - their hard work and investment finally paying off. Not much remained of the pizzas, and the six pack of beer thinned down as their festivities reigned on. For a moment, they were permitted to avoid their minds from wandering back to Blume, and by the looks of it, they were in desperate need of release. Sitara moved her body to the sound of vapor wave blasting through the surround sound speakers, for once without a care in the world. And this newfound side of her, brought a spark of joy to the black hacker. Josh remained seated at the table, but Marcus swore he caught the adolescent bobbing his head along to the rhythm. 

"I suggest we take a small vacation, away from it all. Who's in?" The three laughed at the proposition, their beers meeting once more in the air, before they returned to their celebration. The atmosphere felt pleasant - light and simple - all the pieces fell into place just right, but then there was that particular hint of concern latching its teeth into Marcus, and he let lift him away from the fun. He excused himself, before making his way up to the roof and breathing out a sigh. Wrench kept a headstrong attitude towards DedSec, not showing his face for the duration of three days now. The last they saw of him was a quick gathering of supplies, and then he was gone. Normally, it would be easy to track down the hooded hacker -- since he only frequented three areas he felt somewhat safe and accepted: The hacker space, his garage and the 10 Donut Cafe. And even Naomi had shared her concern on the sudden silence on all fronts. Usually Wrench would send her a text or 5 .. or 10, depending on his mood and whether Naomi found the time to reply fast enough, but as of late, there was a dead silence running between them.

Marcus had followed her example and sent him a few texts of his own, but to no avail. Not one was graced with a response, and half of them weren't even marked as read yet. It only added to the building concern within the black hacker as it was uncharacteristic for Wrench to ignore his phone. Even if he had his sour moments of a childish nature, he'd at the very least read the texts before deciding to ignore them completely. The man shook his head - this wasn't the time to divide his time to Wrench. DedSec had reached a goal - an achievement that had to be commemorated, celebrated - and would end up in three hung over hackers the following day. If only Wrench hadn't claimed such a big part of his thoughts, Marcus might agree to call it a simple thing to do. The man threw the empty beer bottle he held in his hand down the ledge and decided to return to the festivities. Now was not the time..

\- - - 

"Welcome home, doll face." 

Blue eyes widened upon finding an all too familiar face. He tried to push himself up, but the burning pain coming from his sides, put him right back in his place of obedience.   
The palms of his hands sensed the touch of fabric, wool? It had been a duvet of some sort, of that much he was sure. 

"Fucking brilliant.." the blonde groaned, and let his head fall back in to the soft circle of pillows. "Just what I needed."


	4. new paths..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Hacking Music Vol.4 (OPEN CORE)
> 
> Can I just point out how I have a tendency of making every villain in my story likeable? Okay, with that out of the way, continue.

"Good, so you do remember me. Would've been a shame if you didn't." 

The hooded man spoke - his voice but an award away from sounding even remotely convincing. Of course Wrench would remember a rat like him, people don't tend to forget the faces belonging to sick fucks that try to cup a feel on a 14-year old. But for years the memory of him had laid dormant, much to his liking. Though simply being in his presence, set a wave of uncontrollable energy free to run its course down the many paths of his veins. JB ... JB, fucking, Marckowicz.. 

Wrench couldn't help but give into the nostalgia that accompanied his freckled face. Rat or not, Jay had been a pillar of support through all of it. Perverted, very much down to the bone, but those uncomfortable touches aside, he had found strength in the many conversations they held through the padded walls. And Wrench knew, deep down in the darkest chambers of his heart, that Jay wasn't a bad person at all. If he had just worked on those quirky mannerisms a bit more, he could pass off as a normal, functional member of society. Coldness crept over the surface of the skin on his hand, and he found an outstretched arm offering a cold bottle of water. He told himself to stay alert now that he was dragged down into the rat's lair - Jay was highly unpredictable - there was no warning to a shift in emotion, and knowing the kind of shit he pulled down at Blume's back then, there was no telling where this loose cannon drew the line.

The man now labeled as 'Jay', dropped down next to his new toy, a can of beer pressed up against his pierced lips. Dark blue eyes accentuated by the already present in abundance, maroon lighting-set up in the room - and damn, he did possess an inviting pair of eyes, Wrench had to admit. The barely visible freckles adorning his rounded cheeks, and the sly smirk that seemed painted on, gave Jay the outward appearance of the kid next door. There really wasn't much that separated him from the rest, all but for the exception of the dark lagoon blue hairdye. For as long as Wrench had been acquainted with the guy - he had always had a deep-rooted love for the color dark blue, and the many of its variants. It even made him giggle into his fist a little, when Jay demanded Blume staff to provide him with blue eating utensils and toilet seat. For the longest time they believed him to be either autistic, or OCD - neither of those rung true. Well, perhaps the OCD stood some ground. Jay displayed the occasional OCD tendency within his wake. That smug son of a bitch, and his rebellious ways.. They were a needed escape from the reality he suffered inside of Blume.. 

"I kept the bullet in a jar, you know? As a keepsake of your return." The man said casually, pointing a finger at a mounted plank of wood above his desk. And sure, there it was. A glass jar containing a blood-covered bullet, labeled 'Reginald'. The mention of his given name launched itself in Wrench's gut, making him put the water bottle down a little more roughly than he intended. "I know better than to expect more from a filthy rat like you, JB." That snarky comment made the blue-haired individual voice a laugh - heartfelt in nature, or so it sounded. His semi-muscular bicep found a new home around the blonde's small shoulders, and he rested his head against Wrench's. Both men remained in that position for, what seemed minutes, but most likely were mere seconds, taking in the realization that they, indeed, had been reunited at last. After 15, fucking, years.. This rat had found a way back into his life. 

\- - - 

A dark haired waitress sent a familiar face nod of acknowledgment, before carrying a tray of dirty plates and cutlery to the back area of the Cafe, to finally made her way over to the tanned hacker. She readjusted the red skirt that was part of her, rather revealing, uniform, and took a seat on the chair across from Marcus. "Won't they give you shit for taking unwarranted breaks?" The woman sent one of her colleagues a side-way glance, not even remotely bothered by their disapproval. "I'm not being paid enough to give the smallest of fucks. But tell me, what brings you here?" Her eyes shifted between the man's shoulders, noticing an obvious lack of tag-along. "Wrench still in witness protection?" The man sent her an apologetic look, shrugging his shoulders while he did. He undid the strap of his bag, and draped it over a nearby chair. "I'm said to inform you that, yes indeed, he still is. I honestly don't know what triggered this reaction in him." Naomi crossed her arms on the table, her painted bottom lip trapped between a row of teeth. She wasn't one to have an answer to that conundrum, threatening to guide the conversation back into a realm of silence - but found relief in the follow up question Marcus presented her with. "But hey, neither of you have filled me in on the good stuff yet. Or rather.. " The hacker furrowed his brow, not too sure whether this was the right time to bring this up. Then again, there was never a good time to discuss a break-up, was there?

"It ended even before it could begin. I really thought y'all had a thing going, you know? Wrench was crazy about you. Heck, you even complimented his mask - that's big in Wrench's fucked up world." Naomi added a smile to that statement, knowing full well how mesmerized the hooded hacker had been during his stake-outs at the 10 Donut Cafe. She'd often find him sitting in the exact same chair each time, for hours on end, staring at her. Or, that's what she thought he was doing - the mask made it hard to tell where exactly those eyes wandered of to. She had commented on at least treating him to a caramel macchiato for his patience, but he had kindly refused each of those offerings. If suddenly pretending you weren't visible was a means of dismissing the idea of a free macchiato. She had never seen him as an issue, despite catching her colleagues discussing just how much of a creep he was. She couldn't disagree with them entirely, his behavior might come off as somewhat odd and unusual, but to her it was endearing. The timid looks she'd catch him sending her, were more than she could handle. He wasn't a freak, but more or less an adorable weirdo.  
She licked the upper layer of her teeth before shifting her gaze to make eye contact with Marcus. "I thought so too. Don't get me wrong, I think Wrench is a sweetheart, and he has so much going for him, but .." 

"It's the mask, isn't it?"

A curt nod of the head was all it took to get the message across, and the weight lifted off her shoulders. She hadn't realized just how much she needed to get it off her chest, until now. "It complicated so much more than it was worth, Marcus. How could I bring myself to show affection, if he continued to shield himself behind that mask? I wouldn't have a clue who I was opening myself up to. I wouldn't have the slightest of ideas who I wanted to let myself fall in love with, and that stripped me of security that.. I think I need to see things going somewhere beyond playful chit-chats." The black hacker stretched the current eye contact they had established, only to avert his gaze as he pondered on his next thought. He understood her point of view, and he could get behind the reasoning pushing her towards that idea, yet at the same time, could relate to Wrench's need for safety and invisibility. Though he wasn't any the wiser as to what the reason behind that might be, he found himself trapped in the midst of it. Then Naomi's voice resounded once more. "But, despite all of that - I pressed Wrench into staying in touch. After all, I do think he's a nice guy. And I would love to learn more about him." She pressed her elbow into Marcus' side playfully. "He's not like anything I've ever seen before. And it fascinates me. He's unique in .. such a unique way, I guess. It lures you in, if that even makes any sense."

Marcus smirked. "I know exactly what you mean, girl. You don't have to tell me twice."


	5. Insight..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Does JB sound like a bat shit crazy, yet humorous villain? If so, mission succeeded.  
> This is a two parter, there more exposition shared between Wrench and JB, but the script I had written was quite .. long,  
> and if I included the entire conversation in one chapter, it just would've dragged on for far too long.
> 
> OBEY THE RAT! ~~(8:>

Wrench lowered his head, and JB leaned back-first against the wall behind them, in an attempt to make himself more comfortable. Their introduction had been forced, and at such a young age, Wrench wasn't as in touch with his emotions as the Blume cooperatives expected him to be. His appearance more inviting, and less of a non-verbal threat. Shaggy strands of chestnut hair void of dark blue dye, and no metallic ring adorning the center of his bottom lip. The embodiment of neutrality - simple in nature, if it wasn't for the spiced words that he'd bark out. JB had a straight posture, his skin tanned in color, and a muscular build. His naturally deep, and rich in bass voice, rising in pitch when found in a playful mood - in which the man seemed to feel fully liberated from the clutches of life. Wrench had seen his body dressed in the formal attire appointed by the Blume Employee Rule book, which he always gave a personal twist of his own. The sleeves of his dresshirt rolled up sloppily, a studded belt holding up the atrocious grey slacks, worn and dirtied sneakers poking out from beneath them, and not to mention the loose tied manner in which his red tie swayed wildly around his collared neck. Working for the system, against the system.

"This fun, heartfelt and unicorn infested reunion aside, what did you bring me in here for?" Wrench spoke slowly, still feeling troubled about the situation he was forced into. Marckowicz was a powder keg of the most ominous kind. "And what the fuck happend back there?" He continued, eying the man down under the protective layer of his mask. " .. Did you explode that electric cabinet?" The man comfortably draping his broad limbs over the edges of the duvet-covered mattress, chuckled. "I needed to stretch my fingers a bit - and I knew you'd be stupid enough to single-handedly walk right into a war zone." The more time he spent within such close proximity to the 36-year old, eased the blonde to the embossed scent of weed surrounding them. He brought his slender arms up to his chest, crossing them over each other as to communicate the crack visual in his honor. "I went in armed and ready!" Still chuckling into the fabric of his black hoodie, the blue-haired hacker moved his head into a noddig motion. "Oh, so you decided to let them surround you for the thrill of it? Can't say I blame you, I get off of danger just as much as the next guy - nothing beats that familiar tingle traveling down between your legs when your life is at stake." Dark blue eyes found a lighter pair of similar color. "But you seemed to be more out of ammo, rather than 'armed and ready.'" Wrench had to admit to not even counting the amount of explosives he lugged with him - not that it commonly seemed to hold any importance - the item that was targeted to meet an explosive end, would usually do so before the explosives ran out. Nonetheless, JB caught him act out a simple act of carelessness, fueled by haste. ".. There's only so much explosives I can carry on my person." A frown molded his brow. "How the fuck did you even know I was planning on entering a restricted area?" 

The shit-eating grin laid out on JB's face, rang more than one bell. "You motherfucker! Have you hacked into the hacker space's security system?" The older man rolled his eyes in make-shift innocence. "That little 'hacker space' you inhabit sure has its fair share of easily manipulated exploits in its security system." He shook his head in mild disappointment. "Tsk, tsk, tsk - You are but a mere shadow of the original DedSec community. Man, the 90's were good times - anyway, not to mention Glenn's suicide - it was inevitable, and I wont lie, it surprised me that it took him that long to grow a pair and sever the knot in the rope connecting him to Blume - which I knew would just press all of your little butto---" His voice was forcefully cutoff by an invading fist connection to his sharp jawline. It took him a moment to process this sudden act of violence, yet Wrench found newfound power in his defensive demeanor. "You don't have the fucking right to talk about Glenn like that! You don't know shit! - You were operating from the other side - and you didn't have to endure the shit we did!" A wet tongue darted out to trace the curve of his split bottom lip, leaving the coppery taste of blood in his mouth. "That is true - nice punch, by the way - I didn't go through all of that, but similar shit did come my way." He turned to look at Wrench. "And it's like you said, I operated from the other side of the wall. So I didn't get the chance to bond over mutual mental and emotional torture with a room mate, or anyone for that matter." He leaned back against the wall, resting both of his hands on his hipbones. "Boo hoo, too bad I don't share your sympathy boner for Whittaker." 

He knew better than to expect emotional support from a rat like JB, but despite that knowledge, JB's harsh sounding words stung. They stung deep and left visible wounds on the fragile walls of Wrench's damaged heart. "You brought me here to twist a knife in an already opened wound, Jay?" Another shake of the head, joined by another shit-eating grin. "No, it wasn't my original plan, but boy - if it isn't fun to imagine your eyes lighting up with fire." He brought a hand over to pet the hooded man's head. "No, no -- My reasons are of another variety entirely." Exhaling a low groan, JB had pushed himself off the bed, and sauntered over to his desk -- allowing the main monitor to light up in the darkness. "You were selfish to think the Blackout of '03 only affected you." A steady hand punched in a number of keys on the keyboard, filling up the screen with a command-based driver search. "You see, the blood on Blume's hands isn't solely Glenn's - no. A society depends on technology to ease the routines too damn much, and Jacob was no stranger to this law of nature." He broke his line of sight with the screen, to lock eyes with the blonde for a second. "A modified and self-taught law of nature, that is."  
.  
The mentioning of Jacob was more than enough confirmation needed to set off at least two alarm bells in Wrench's mind. JB had been hung up about the entire situation for years, and as proven by his chosen words, it was still a vivid memory he carried around with him, guiding his every move and motivation. 

"I thought .. they had released Jacob from suicide watch." 

"And you thought wrong." The voice belonging to Chicago's feared black hat hacker uttered, plopping his broad body down in the leather desk chair with ease. "He was forced to find a new home on that ward - and could you blame him?" Said man added an arm movement that translated to a needle pressed up against a vein present in an arm. "Fuck me, he actually had the balls to do so, and instead he was put on display - much like a fucking lab rat - just for them to await the moment he'd finally go through with it. And then this fucker.." JB pointed a finger at a picture on the main display monitor. "Decides that the best way to keep Blume's fixers off his tail, is to put innocent people's lives in danger." JB's tone of voice monotone, unlike the anger Wrench had anticipated. He watched the man spin the desk chair around, so he was met with a pair of deep pools of blue. "Jacob saw this moment of inattentiveness in Blume and pulled the trigger." He then threw his head in a sideway glance, squinting one eye shut halfway. "Metaphorically speaking, of course. He didn't actually pull any physical, Goddamn trigger in that little patted cage of his. No, he went down a more traditional path. Tied a bunch of stained sheets together and made himself a nice noose. Crack, neck broken." He voiced a forced chuckle. "Bet those fuckers over at the mental institution never saw such a life-like Halloween decoration swinging back and forth on their porch." 

Swallowing down a lump that had formed in his dry throat, Wrench let his eyes wander over to the picture on the screen. And Goddamn it, he should've seen the big reveal coming from miles away. Raymond, T-Bone, Kenney. 

"Ray? He's behind all of this? He caused the Blackout?" The hooded hacker brought his hands together, sending the sound of clapping through the room. "Five silver stars for our little masked anarchist." He then turned back to goggle the screen in front of him. "I devoted much of my time to finding this son of a bitch after he was backed into a corner by Blume, and you know where I found him?" He took in the blonde engineer's shake of the head, and let his fingers dance over the keyboard. Another familiar face found its way onto the screen. "The fucking Vigilante himself - yeah, unexpected, isn't it? - lead me right to him. Apparently a bank-hacking job went wrong - big surprise - a third party stole the information Pearce and crew had their eye on, and fixers were sent to clean up the mess." The blue-haired individual took a moment to lick his lips before continuing. "Pearce fell into the clutches of a deep-rooted family-complex, awakening his inner Batman, which led him to a sequence of code created by the fucker known as Raymond Kenney." He arched his back, resting his tanned arms on his thighs as he leaned in closer to Wrench, who now stood behind him. "Legend has it that Blume wanted to use this fuckface's code for their own little scheme. So, fuckface felt betrayed - poor fucker, sobs stories intended for diaries - and redirected any incoming heat and blame back to Blume. Time progresses, bullets, blame and tears fly back and forth, he blows the fuses and the blackout happens.' Blue eyes rolled back, then a hand reached for the hooded anarchist. "Then the fucker takes off like the bitch he is, and hides out in Pawnee, of all places." 

"Where Aiden Pearce found him." Wrench mumbled into his fist, rendered unable to pry his eyes away from the picture displayed on the screen. "I've heard stories about them joining hands. Pearce needed Ray to decrypt his personal code - but then they were intercepted by another hacker." He glanced over at JB. "You sure seem to have done your homework." The older man nodded in approval, then that trademarked grin made another appearance. "Correcto mundo!" The grin on his face deepening even further, beyond what Wrench thought possible. "That's because the person that hacked into the squatted Blume server bunker, was none other than yours truly." He paused to make a half-assed bow. "I've gotta admit, I'm damn good at following footprints in the snow." His eyes trailed back to the picture of Aiden Pearce, finding the green eyes the man kept hidden behind the visor of his headgear. "Chicago's cherished Vigilante was good - make no mistake, he fucked me up not too long ago - a piss poor excuse for a hacker, but good in covering his tracks." He waved his arm in a motion signifying he wanted to wrap things up. "Long story short, I exposed an ex-DedSec member, it causes a wrench - no pun intended - between this cute little hacker trio, Aiden confronts an ex-employer of his - who had kidnapped his sister, go fucking figure - kills the son of a bitch, Ray claims back some of the bunker's server-hardware, flees back to wherever the fuck cockroaches are drawn to, and Pearce goes into permanent hiding. Operating mostly from the shadows." He muted a chuckle with his hand. "Man, he really is a discount Batman when I put it like that.." He chuckled at the newfound realization, before turning back to face Wrench. "And here we are!" His grin darkened in mood. "I wish I had more exposition, because I loved story time with JB. You looked so entranced by my storytelling - and I am a bit amazed by how much you liked my narration. Then again, I do have a nice voice, if I do say so myself. ANYWAY - I have given you a massive exposition dump already, you should thank me sometime. Maybe a few shots at the Dot ConneXion?" He then shook his head again, as to keep himself focused on what he was initially saying. "After all of this went down, and Blume officially put an end to the Vigilante's playtime, they erected ctOS 2.0 - which made following Kenney around that much more tense for me. I've gotta be honest with you - one hacker to another - I lost him." JB casually shrugged his broad shoulders. "He slipped past my radar and now my beautiful hands are bound."


	6. You can't wash off the smell of rats.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Hacking music Vol.12 (ENCRYPTED AI)
> 
> Exposition dump officially over. Now, let us return to a more fluent and laid back kind of story telling in the next chapter.

"Why would you assume I have anything on Raymond Kenney? The only hackers I associate with are DedSec, man." The previously smug expression carved onto JB's face, slowly morphed into a more expressive one. "Why do you keep insulting my intelligence, Reginald?" He crossed his arms with a slight pout taking over his pierced lip. "My dick is 8 inches deep in your security system's tight little hole. I've seen the company you surround yourself with -- and the company you seem to want to get just a little closer to -- gifting me with a view on one of Chicago's most hated faces." The man's face dropped entirely, and instead he locked his stern gaze with Wrench's. "I know your little DedSec buddies kneel down to suck off Kenney's wrinkled dick time after time again, and to see you lash out at him, restored my faith in the non-sheeple part of humanity. But that doesn't take away that you work alongside him - which undid that very moment of restoration. Why .. Why do you do this to me, Reg? Have you forgotten what this ass did to you?" JB leaned back in his chair, ghosting his hands in the air between himself and Wrench's mask. "That Quasimodo-level face you feel you need to hide from the world, was a result from his selfish actions! And now .. victim nr.3 is added to our personal list." 

The hooded engineer felt life drain from his very body after hearing that low-gut aimed insult. ".. Thanks, man." Blue hair was released from its elastic-held constraint, only for large hands to reform that constraint in a more secure fashion. "Don't fall all the way down - I'd still fuck you." Wrench's eyes rolled back. "Gee, that's a consultation if I've ever heard one." 

"That's it. That's why I brought your malnourished ass here." The hooded hacker twisted his core with spread arms. "Do you like it? My new place. Chicago became a bit of a drag, so I decided to relocate. And it has nothing to do with Aiden Pearce thinking I'm dead - which I'm obviously not, but let's not burst his bubble just yet. I'd say I'm just the kind of guy that goes great lengths for his cause." Wrench shifted on his feet, not entirely sure what the point to any of this was. The lines were blurring increasingly with each word JB added. "That cause being..?"

"Sucking the life outta Raymond Kenney.. Or, wait. Nah, scratch that - that sounds more like something your friend Josh would do." The mother of sly grins birthed right then and there. "Now that we're on the topic, has Marcus sucked your dick yet? You guys seem to have a shitload of underlying sexual tension going on." He then went on to hold up both of his hands. "Never mind, not my business, and not relevant to the situation. -- I want Kenney's brain matter in a jar. Just a case of good old-fashioned revenge." 

"And what makes you think I could be of any use to this old-fashioned revenge?" The blonde engineer dropped his arms, letting them fall limply at his sides. "Yeah, Ray hangs out at the hacker space from time to time - but it's not like we're best buds or anyhting." A single finger was pointed at him. "That's exactly the point. Makes it that much easier for you to detach yourself from the idea of him being a human being with feelings." JB shook his head curtly. "It isn't DedSec itself I'm after, it's the Botnet you worked on. Praise where it's due, and Botnet is one sexy piece of engineering. How long did it take you skiddies to code the entire network?" Wrench thought back to the very moment Josh had announced their network being up and running. They had felt the weight of the world fall of their shoulders right then and there. Blue eyes shifted under the mask. "Long enough. And the fuck makes you think I'd give you access to Botnet?" Slender arms found a new home on a set of pointy hips. "I haven't heard from you in years, even shared in Pearce's idea on you being pretty much dead - and now you expect me to hand over one of our biggest accomplishments in engineering - just because you dropped some exposition on Glenn's death and Ray's connection to it." He shook his head. "I might be young, but that doesn't automatically make me a gullible idiot, Jay." 

Said man leaned back down to his former posture. "But it does. - Explain to me how you are not a young, gullible idiot, when you are in fact, working together with the person that, not only took the lives of 11 innocent people without as much as batting an eye, but also disfigured your trainwreck of a face? That's like jumping down into the lion's den, getting mauled at, and then blaming the zoo keepers for not shooting the lions in time." He adjusted the hood that shrouded a big part of his face, breaking eye contact with the younger hacker. "If you put yourself in the line of fire and you get shot, who the fuck is to blame, you think? I just want to play with Kenney. An innocent game that may or may not, result in his timely death. - Completely harmless." Wrench remained motionless, causing the man to breathe out an annoyed sigh. "Okay, I guess I'll have to drop a ton of salt down on the bland dish that is you." He reached an arm out to the masked engineer, pulling him in closer until he found himself on JB's lap. "Hmm, you're thinner than I remember. Are they even feeding you over at DedSec?" His hands roamed the younger man's prominent hipbones, before snapping out of it. "Alright, alright, alright - I'll make you an offer you can't refuse -- see the Godfather reference? Minus you getting killed - and then we might see eye-to-eye." He placed his chin on Wrench's shoulder. "You want to infiltrate ctOS' HQ in the hope of finding Glenn's body, correct?" 

"It's not their right to hold on to it.." 

"Yeah, yeah - blah blah blah, sentimental blabbering. This is my offer: You give me full admin access to DedSec's Botnet, I put a tracking device on Kenney PC, and in return I'll hack into Blume's HQ, disable their power feed, and give you a free pass to roam their grounds, and you get out Glenn's body, to do with it whatever it is you so desire. Win-win. You have what you want, and I can set up my pawns on the play board." Wrench stiffened when a finger hooked itself under his chin, forcing eye contact on a more personal-space invading level. "It's not like you give an actual shit about that Kenney fucker anyway, isn't that right?" A frown, invisible to the older male. "Just because we don't always agree with each other, doesn't immediately mean I'm gonna throw him into a pack of wolves." Wrench spoke through gritted teeth. "If you really are the amazing hacker you make yourself out to be, then why don't you just hack your way into Botnet? Surely that wouldn't be too much effort or strain put on your skill-pack." JB's dark blue eyes darted back and forth between the small body cooped in this lap, and the computer monitor on the desk. He had anticipated resistance, but now it was just becoming a drag at this point. "No, you are correct in that assumption, but .. Then one of your friends might figure it out, and things will get so much more complicated than they need to be. And I doubt you would want to get your precious friends involved." He pressed his lips against the blonde's ear shell. "Believe you me, I'm not opposed to planting bullets in hipsters. As you've seen, I recently started a collection. And in my leisure time, I befriended quite the amount of trigger-happy individuals - that will do just about anything I tell them, for the right amount of greens." 

Wrench felt a grin form against his skin. "I'm always up to join a game, Reg - but the king is never without a second pair of eyes. And there are only so many moves a pawn can make.." 

"So you resort to blackmail."

The hooded hacker sighed. "Reggie, it is simple, really. Give me admin-access to Botnet, and let me do my thing - or I will hack into it and clean up whatever stands in my way. The choice is simple. Either one person dies, or a handful of people does -- and you get to decide their fate - isn't that fun? You've been given a taste of Godlike power. The ball is now in your court."


	7. Unexpected..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lstening to: Hacking Music Vol.1 (CODED)
> 
> Sorry for its shortness .. I find it hard to stretch sections about DedSec itself .. *shrugs, takes a sip from juice box*

Grey eyes found a man of age roaming the deepest corners of his own mind. It was a sight she hadn't been introduced to much, especially not considering the loud-and-about personality bottled up within said man. "You've been cooped up in your own world all day, and I'm not used to you being this quiet, Ray. Is this reason for concern?" As if caught in the act of stealing a cookie from a jar, the dread locked man snapped back to reality with a shake of the head. He caught the lingering stare Sitara sent his way, and passed it off with a stretch of the neck. "There ain't nothing for you to worry 'bout, girly. My mind just wandered a bit." And it hadn't been an exact lie either. Sitara gave a short not, though not keen on letting the topic go just yet. "It has been wandering ever since you set foot in here. Whomever is consuming that much of your thoughts, shouldn't be that easily dismissed." A smile came to life on her lips, alongside a hint of compassion hidden behind circles of gray. "It's okay if you want to keep it a personal matter, I understand." Ray breathed out a soundless chuckle, his shoulders bouncing somewhat. "Know what? For such a young lady, you have quite the head on your shoulders, Sitara." It made the dark-haired young adult grimace. "I get that a lot." Her playful attitude then softened. "But, you okay?" 

"Yeah." The older hacker whispered, more to himself than Sitara. "Yeah, I was just thinking about an old friend I left behind in Chicago. Can't seem to find peace in the idea that I've done the right thing by leaving him to his own devices, ya know?" Their farewell had been brief - brief to the extent of neither man even doing as much as looking back at the other, as they were forced to go their separate ways. "Are you talking about the Chicago Vigilante?" Sitara asked, knowing good and well that that was exactly who Raymond was referring to. "It doesn't surprise me that the word has traveled this far already." Ray said, pulling one of the chairs from under the table, then turned it backwards as he took a seat. "Peculiar fella - liked to keep to himself. But I felt compelled to help him tie loose ends." It had never been spoken aloud, thus confirmation was never given on what their relationship was called. Ray would label it as friendship, though Aiden probably shied away from that term. Most likely calling it nothing more than a strict business relation. 

"I've picked up a thing or two on him. Aiden Pearce, right? A grey hat hacker hellbent on maintaining order in Chicago to his best ability." The summary Sitara had given him on Aiden couldn't be further from the truth. Heck, Aiden's main motivation to do what he did - is, and always will be, his sister Nicole and her son Jackson. He chuckled at Sitara's words. "He managed to get more pigs on his ass than any other criminal in town. But he was the kind of guy that would keep calm and chive on, despite all of it. And even though his methods were unorthodox, he was a countenance more in sorrow than anger." The man averted his gaze for a second. "Found himself between a rock and a hard place more than I, personally, could keep count of, but he fought for a good cause." Sitara leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms above her head when she did. "Can't deny that the stories and myths about the Vigilante fascinated me back then. It's almost as if, once you become part of the hacker-community, you are met with two sides. One side praising him and what he has accomplished, the other side having very little respect towards him, and the mere mentioning of the Chicago Vigilante sends them ablaze. But I've heard both sides out, and heard many-a-tales about him." Raymond complemented that with an agreeable nod. "Can't blame 'em. He was driven by personal conflict, and worked towards a goal he set for himself. Yeah, he helped out a few people here and there along the way - but in the end, he did most of it for himself." The man then turned his gaze toward the silent brunet sitting across from Sitara. "Hey kid, a penny for your thoughts." Once Josh looked up and away from his laptop, Raymond sent him a grimace. "You better not be biting off more than your little jaws can chew." Said brunet gave him a look of confusion, following the dread locked individual until he stopped behind him and peered over his shoulders, at the small screen. "What're you even working on?" 

Map coordinates took up most of Josh's laptop, which caused Ray to grunt. "You're still looking for that weirdo's location?" He was quick to defensively raise his hands when he caught wind of the sour look Josh had sent his way. "Look, I get that y'all both are worried about Wrench, but that kid can take care of himself. No use in going on a wild goose chase, here." The sudden addition of a silent, yet stern voice became the focus point of both Raymond and Sitara. "It has been four days, six hours and 22 minutes - according to his usual schedule, the chances of Wrench holding out for that duration of time, are nonexistent." With a sad smile, Sitara had walked over to Josh, and placed both of her hands on either side of his shoulders. "I'm positive that he'll reemerge eventually." Yet the green-hooded teen had none of it, shaking his head sporadically. "A stitch in time saves nine - is what my mother used to say." His chestnut colored eyes found Sitara's lighter ones. "I have a bad feeling about this." She just coated the look of worry on his face, with one of compassion. "It's sweet that you're this worried about Wrench, sweetie. But Ray is right, Wrench is a big boy, and can fend for himself. Remember, if he doesn't speak, don't ask." In a robotic fashion, Josh had closed the laptop standing on the desk in front of him. "Aiden Pearce ignored obvious contempt within Damien Brenks." This statement roused interest within Raymond. "He allowed Brenks to play out his plan, and Pearce ended up with his back against the wall." Josh continued silently. "I don't want to imagine this scenario playing out for us." 

Sitara straigthened her back, her eyes traveling back to Raymond. "You think Wrench got himself in some kind of trouble?" Said man just shrugged. "Isn't that the kid's trademark by now?" Josh got up and held his laptop under his arm. "He's been gone for four days, his phone fails to establish a connection to Botnet, and even Marcus can't get a reply out of him. That's not the usual pattern... and irregular patterns upset me." He flinched upon feeling Sitara wrap her arms around his shaking frame, and said woman took a deep breath of air. "It'll be alright, Josh." Josh never got this emotionally invested with anyone, especially not Wrench. Though their friendship might not be the strongest one within DedSec, his intense rebellion against his fellow hacker's push-downs, showcased how much he really cared about his friends. Wrench better get wind of this when he returns, because he owed Josh an embrace of no known kind. Upon her release, Sitara turned toward the staircase leading up to the geek shop. "I think all of us could use a little break from our own minds. Pizza and beers it is."


	8. Point of no return..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Epicuros - Metropolis 2.1 
> 
> I feel like such trash for shipping Defalt and Wrench, when I know Marcus is made for him.  
> But .. Lucky Wrench for getting a taste of all the dishes, amirite, hahahaahhahahahaaaahahahahahahhahaha _i'llletmyselfout._
> 
> Also, am I the only one who envisions Defalt to look a little something like this :  
> [](http://nl.tinypic.com?ref=ify8na)
> 
> Yeah, yeah - I know that his name is of European origin - being European myself, I should know -- BUT, it also has never been confirmed to be an official given name.  
> The game mentions Defalt to being no stranger to using aliases, and using names of the victims of his cyber attacks. -- So, with the already non-existing amount of information we've been given on Defalt as a character - who the fuck knows anything about this guy, for real though? He could be French, Irish, Asian, Indian, you name it. All we know is that he has a light skin tone. That's the only thing we know for sure.. So, naturally I will let my mind wander.

Converse sneakers made their way down a set of stairs in haste. Hole-ridden soles brushing up against each and every indentation in the metal, and the faint sound of PsyChill music gaining in clarity and volume the more distance his tapping feet covered. He hadn't the faintest idea of how to put up a convincing front for DedSec - knowing good and well that they were bound to see right through it. He had been put between a rock and a hard place by JB, and found himself wishing he had never taken him up on his offer. The natural course for Blume was set in stone -- The jump would have caused Glenn's ribs and vertebrae to break and shatter upon impact, the pressure of the fall tearing his organs from their set positions, guiding them to be punctured by detached pieces of sharp bone. His body would be nothing more than a handful of pieces of shattered glass, kept stationary within a meaty sack of severed tendons and pools of clotting blood from the blunt-force trauma. And Blume would take all the steps necessary to clean their fingerprints right off of what remained of what used to be a breathing, thinking and loving person. Those bastards wouldn't even care, weren't likely to even remember his face, or the scarred patch of skin on the inside of his bicep.

A head of ash blonde hair was violently shook, and said sneakers came to a halt at the bottom of the metal staircase. He didn't believe a word JB had spoken to him, and till this day found no real reason to trust him, but it was that damn connection to Blume they shared in. Had they not been in the same situation in the past, he would've told JB to kindly fuck off way sooner. He just didn't want to risk it, or take a chance in denying Glenn a proper burial. It was all he could do after running and never looking back. Not even once, not even close. 

Icy blue pools moved around the hacker space's main area, finding mostly silence and emptiness within its walls. He took a few steps forward, feeling a weight being lifted onto his shoulders the longer the silence dragged on. He could only imagine the course of action DedSec would take upon realizing the act of betrayal from Wrench. The bond they shared, and the entrenched cause for which they so desperately fought - all for nought, left to vaporize within mere seconds. And he had to admit, the thought of losing his friends sent fear to his very core. It was late in the afternoon, so Sitara was most likely at home, hunched over one of the many sketches she occupied her mind and body with. Josh, presumptively, staring at the screen of his PC, unable to let go of his quest to improve Botnet and its function within DedSec's server. Which left Marcus to an unknown location. He was an out-going guy that enjoyed roaming bars until he found himself passed out on his own bedroom floor, though the time frame didn't add up. 

Wrench took a couple more careful steps deeper into the hacker space, feeling a wave of relief hit him upon finding a, more than familiar face, sprawled out lazily on the couch near the east corner of the room. Chances were that whatever Josh and Sitara were working on, had put them under such an intense spell, Marcus was bound to feel useless in their midst, and thus took it upon himself to add to the silent atmosphere by forcing himself into a state of slumber. A smirk curled the edges of the engineers thin lips, and on the tips of his toes, he sneaked closer to the unsuspecting sleeping beauty. A chuckle bounced off against the confines of the blonde's mask, and with one well timed dash forward, now found himself straddling the dark-toned body. He had been given just the right amount of time to take in the sensation of said body's chest rising, before a pair of dark eyes shot open, quickly changing the situation with a well timed roll-around, to then find himself pushed into the soft cushions. Marcus' eyes grew big when his brain recognized the studded mask that looked up at him. "Shit, dude! Wrench, what the fuck?" Yet instead of initiating a plan of escape, the masked man merely laughed heartily. "Damn, M. Didn't think you had such a wild side to ya." He playfully bucked his small hips up, pressing them against the other man's. "But I'm not against it." He then added, the lights on the visor blinking to a ' ^ ~ ', when the black hacker pulled himself off. 

Marcus watched the younger man straighten himself on the couch, then added a groan. "Where the fuck have you been? You've gone off the grid for 4 days straight!" Fuck, here it was. He told himself to keep a straight face, sharing that information with his mask as well, and to keep his body in check. Marcus was cunning, he would figure it out within the blink of an eye if anything was amiss. Thus, the blonde adjusted the rolled up sleeves of his black DedSec-logo embedded hoodie. "Yeah, I guess I needed more time to .. you know, process that suicide case." He told himself to refrain from meeting Marcus' eyes. "And the alone time has done me good." Wrench sucked in some air when he felt the couch cushions adjacent to him, sink in with the addition of the other hacker's dead weight. Fuck, Marcus had sighed for a second time in only 5 minutes - not good. "Man.. You sure you good?" His voice was laced with genuine concern, adding to an already struggling hooded hacker to keep calm. "You know the guy?" He had to act natural - well, as natural 'natural' was to him. "An old friend." He spoke in a soft voice, sending a nod into the blank space surrounding them. "But, drop the concern - I'm good." He leaned back on the couch, draping his slender legs over Marcus' thighs. "I don't like admitting it, but I've missed y'all." Marcus saw the blonde lock both arms behind his head, making himself even more comfortable than he had already looked. "Is that right?" the black hacker said, his head held sideways, a hint of mischief glowing in the reflection on his eyeballs, as he looked over at the general area where he anticipated Wrench's eyes to be behind the mask. "Even Ray?" 

The engineer stiffened under his touch, his head going in various directions. "Don't make me go there." He then let his head fall back against the wooden arm-rest of the couch. "So, spill the beans, man! Anything interesting happen around here while I was gone?" A simple shake of the head followed. "Not really. You tend to be the life of the party." How those words had smothered his tiny heart in such a tight embrace - forcing the shittiest of shit-eating grins on to his face. Heck, this smug facial expression might even top the ones JB had mastered over the years. "Thank you, thank you." Marcus took a moment to gather and organize the thoughts that had popped up in his mind - debating whether overloading Wrench's internal hardware with these continuous line of questions was the right thing to do. But, shit. He had been gone for nearly a week, and he owed DedSec some answers. 

"Yo, Wrench.." Marcus began carefully, shortly looking up to find two default X's displayed on the other's mask. "I know that you need some time to yourself every now and again, and I respect that. -- But maybe, next time.. You could consider giving us a small sign that confirms you're still.. y'know.. Alive." Wrench's feet bounced up and down in a steady rhythm, hoping he was doing a fine job of acting natural. "Did you worry, M?" Marcus sure didn't seem to find any breaches in his behavior, this was going smoother than he had hoped. "We all did, man. But I can only speak for myself when I say that I was scared you might've .. gone and get yourself killed somehow." The hipster moved his head in all the right angles for several vertebrae to pop back into place. "Right before you disappeared, you were saying things about blowing up Blume and .. I felt like a shitty friend for not showing more support." Said hipster's eyebrow arched upon sensing an arm draping itself around his shoulders, followed by a hooded head leaning down against his own. "Marcus, I'm like weeds - can't be killed and the best thing since sliced bread!" 

The feeling of having Wrench this close to him, put his growing nerves right to ease. He could already smell the man's scent - a mixture of mint and weed. Though he had never seen Wrench smoke a blunt in person. He had already moved out of the man's touch, robbing the pleasant moment the chance of getting awkward in any type of way. "Takes one to know one, ain't that right, Wrench?" A hooded head nodded vigorously, before owner of said hood pushed his torso in a more straight posture. "Hey M, would you mind .. heading out to get me a Sub?" A moment of silence transpired, and the blonde feared he might have overstayed his welcome, but was glad to see his friend stand up, his arms already tossing the strap of his bag around his shoulder. "I'm too good for you, and with zero pay-off." Once he had turned his back to the engineer and was already half-way up the stairs, did Wrench's grin deepen. "There's no such thing as a free lunch, M. Unless when it comes to me, I am kept alive on free lunches." 

The sound of the metal door falling into its frame, filled the blonde's body with enough adrenaline to slither his way over to his computer. "Alright, against my better judgment.." He pulled the desk chair closer to the keyboard, his fingers tapping away at the touchscreen on his smartphone.

W:'Botnet is WAN. You have 10 minutes to connect before I take it down.'

JB: '3 minutes is all I need (; '

Wrench rolled his eyes behind the mask.  
'3 minutes was all you ever needed, J.' 

JB: ' D: '  
JB: Alright I'm in. PAN it up, Reggiepoo.

W: Don't ever again call me that > >

JB: LOLOLOL  
JB: Hey, wanna thnk me by treating me to shots yet?

W: I'm broke AF

JB: If U'd let me, I could make U whole again (' ;

W: _ - _ 

JB: Fine, my treat. <3  
JB: U start thinking up ways U can thnk me latr! :*

W: ತ_ತ

JB: ( ˘˘з)


	9. Knowing which way the wind is blowing..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Epicuros - Artificial Intelligence Vol.3 (Age of Transhumanism)
> 
> Can I just say that I know absolutely fuck-all about America? That's what you get for being European af.  
> I legitimately had to look up public parks in SF, just to make sure this chapter's setting made somewhat sense..  
> *shakes head, pours another glass of wine* I'm getting too old for having to keep explaining my own ignorance.
> 
> PS: Though I usually don't reach for these, I wouldn't mind adding a BETA-R to this series. Mainly because English isn't my first language,  
> and though overall my usage of words is correct and on point, it could help fix small errors concerning idioms, sentence structure, spellchecks etc.
> 
> So, if you have any knowledge on writing and grammar, feel free to contact me. We'll see where it goes from there.*thumbs up*

The degrees had gone up to 90s - the air thick with stifling sultriness. News reporters and local radio hosts reviewed the long awaited return of San Francisco's 49ers, hyping an athletic performance that was anticipated to exceed last year's deliverance. In turn, various liquor permit wielding convenience stores were compelled to increase the number of stocked alcoholic beverages, the usual cheap brand fast foods and one-bite snacks. The name '49ers' lingered on the lips of sports-enthused civilians, red and white colored decorations flying off the shelves in a moment's notice. Yet none of it was of any interest to a certain SF based rebel. Year after year, his hometown would be pushed into second gear, a state of inconsequential turmoil, off which the bulk of corporation-manipulated residents feeds without hesitation. Even pretending that he cared even a little bit, would be below his pay grade. 

He followed his usual routine of waking up with the weight of the world pressing down on his chest, and walking it off on the way toward Gary's Games and Glory. Football promoting advertisements decorating the mass of shop windows and highway level billboards, nothing short of a heinous system drive overwrite in his eyes. He'd be damned to let it overwrite his very own system's emotional mood-drive. He picked up the pace, brushing his sneakers past grassy patches that belonged to an impressive architectural structure erected in the center of Dolores Park. The enclosing heat nonchalantly browsing segments of his exposed, fair skin. Summer reigned, retributive and enforced by distorted ozone layers - strong in her wake. Clicking his tongue against a row of teeth, the young rebel reciprocated the nod of acknowledgement from the Game-shop's acquainted owner -- marching the lengths of his drawn-out legs up a number of steps, to find himself punching in a security code without as much as giving it a single thought. Just another vessel going through the motions, moving at the lethargic speed of a corrupt politician asked to speak coveted words of bitter-sweet truth. 

Unable to spell out the optimistic frame of mind that moved him, his voice was stretched out into waves of vibrations when addressing two friends down in the Hacker Space. "It's a beautiful morning this morning." In a gesture of good will, he had planted his hands on a younger brunet's hunched and tensed shoulders, ending the invasion of his personal space by skipping ahead towards a wooden workbench. The younger man's reaction failed to pester him, it was a fraction of his withdrawn psyche. He let his eyes wander over the bench's surface athwart, leaning in to the smile that spread over his lips. "Do you think an android-type alarm clock is a good idea?" Sitara looked up after having sent Josh a smile of reassurance, anything but blind to the exceptionally good mood the other found himself in. She watched the man take a closer look at an older, defective SHARP model of alarm clock, to later crouch next to a plastic container of spare parts, then brought a set of linked arms up to her chest in amusement. "Did Naomi and you finally take the relationship to the next level?" The spike-ridden mask that peered over the edge of the workbench displayed a pair of blinking question marks, then the owner of said mask stood upright and dumped an armful of varying in size-shaped wheels onto the bench. "Naomi and I will cross that bridge when we come to it." He had spoken in response to her question, and distributed his weight between the arms that covered its surface. "Which ones should I pick?" He said, blue irises slithering from one angle to another. "The big ones would give it more weight, but the medium-sized ones could streamline the design more.." 

"The small ones will give it more agility." 

The piercing eyes that had been absorbing wheel-sizes earlier, quickly shifted toward the green-hooded brunet, then a balled fist was forcefully slammed down - said wheels shivered for a moment. "You're absolutely right! Bigger isn't always better, Joshie-boy!" He added a nod. "You are an underrated genius." Again, Sitara watched the masked engineer return to attend the gathering of collected baseball-sized wheels, that entertained smile never leaving her painted face. "Must've been one hell of a one-night stand then. Just how drunk were you?" 

What amount of cheap canned beers had he shared with Jay for the remainder of the night they spent together? The memory nothing more than a vague blemish on his brain. The contents of conversation empty and lacking in substance, but it was exactly that what had driven him to stay around. He never failed to find entertainment in a drunk JB, and none of the words that crawled past the rat-eared hacker's blabbering lips, holding on to credibility or sense. That must have meant they devoured more than a single six pack. He didn't care, the alcohol was paid for by Jay. 

"Beyond recognition, but that's nothing new to me." His steady hand fiddled with a screwdriver, securing a minuscule screw in to place - grateful that he still had such sharp and attentive eyesight. Absorbed by the small size of the screws and the fine, hair sharp turns they acquired to fit in to place, stripped him of the awareness of noticing a fourth member had joined the party. A dark-skinned hipster had bounced through the room in a fast pace, dropping down a small plastic bag on the table, before bending his core to allow a bowing motion. As much as Marcus had grown on them, their unspoken gratitude and expectation from them to view him as a food-delivery boy, remained just that. The rich scent of baked dough roused a masked engineer from minuscule screws thrown about on his workbench, his shielded eyes locating the source to said scent with two heart-shaped emoticons visual on the LED-lit visor as he leapt forward and onto Marcus' back. The black hacker swiftly positioned his toned arms under Wrench's small legs, shifting the weight from purely his hack to a shared carrying position involving arm muscles. "I brought in the food for Josh and Sitara." He turned his head in an angle comfortable enough to trick his brain into thinking the sound of his voice needing less distance to travel and reach the hooded blonde's ears. "I had a nice walk in mind for DedSec's beloved domestic pet." 

Temperatures damned to lower, complicating the intake of air even further - and the clock only just reached 11AM.

Marcus had arched his back to a certain degree, allowing Wrench's slender body to slide down the curvature with ease. Once the man's feet hit the ground, and Marcus had already seated himself on a permanent marker-clad park bench, near the edges of Dolores Park - had the realization of summer's dawn been opened to awakened minds. Both men found comfort in assuming an eased-back position on the bench, unable to ignore the hardwood pressed against their vertebrae and hip joints. "I thought you might wanted to know that I talked to Naomi the other day." Marcus lifted one of his legs up, resting the limb on the surface area of the wood. "She opened up about her relationship with you, so I let her talk." A riled up group of unemployed citizens with nothing better to do than to cause a public disturbance, seemingly failed to fight off a growing number of law enforcements. The cheapish constructed signs that were held up in the air with confidence, now torn to pieces that were spread out over the length of the concrete paths lining them. Marcus seemed unaffected, unlike the rebellious side of Wrench, who watched the demonstration of lemon anarchy play out before his eyes with great fascination. Once a few of the protesters had been compromised and were hard-handedly shoved into a patrol vehicle, the show had come to a disappointing end. He turned back to Marcus, who had patiently awaited a reconnection.

"She finds dealing with the mask difficult." He finally spoke between a shake of the head, and yet another shift in positions. The swelter in which oxygen was being shrouded at the moment, not of any known kind of assistance. "She doesn't hold it against you, but mentioned it feeling like a barrier that stands between the both of you." Beads of fresh sweat building up on the foreheads of the men, and it was more inconvenient for the masked one of the two. "Wouldn't be a first.." He muttered against the forearm he had pressed against the heated, and moist skin of his forehead. Summers were pleasant, but this was just a bit too much of a good thing. "But she really thinks you're a nice- and interesting guy." Marcus later added to his previous sentence, earning him a curt, yet calculated nod of the head from the blonde. "Yeah, I know.." Wrench spoke leaning down with both arms adding weight on his thighs. "She insisted we stayed friends." He looked at Marcus, making it a point to keep the expression on his mask blank. "That's how I knew she was breaking up with me in the first place. " The man stiffened under the excited reflection in a pair of button-black eyes, belonging to a passing jogger's French Bulldog. Dogs, they weren't to be trusted. His friend breathed out a chuckle. "It wasn't because of you, or your face, man. She hasn't even see your face yet, and she's still this crazy 'bout you." Praise where it's due. The blonde pulled up his knees in one swift motion, trading in the surface of the bench for the back support. "M, if I got a penny for each and every time a person told me I had a nice 'personality', you wouldn't be buying all of my meals." He tapped the wood under his feat with the nose of his black Converse, then looked down at the black man. "But I guess it holds some truth if various people give me the same bullshit over and over. Either that's the case, or they all took the exact same lame horoscope advice .. with the exact choice of words aimed to politely reject me." 

"Look at it from this perspective: I have seen your face, and repeatedly told you how much of an awesome dude you are. That does not mean I'm just being polite to keep your spirits up. Fuck man, that doesn't even guarantee that I'm cutting off all possibilities for growth in our relationship." Marcus let his head fall forward, chin connecting to the rough bones that made up the collar. "You are generalizing, dude. And that's a trap many people fall in." Two giggling children sat on a beach towel between high-reaching blades of vibrantly green blades of grass. It took the anarchist a moment to pick himself back up, the amount of visual and audio-based distractions around him continuously increasing. "Does that indirectly mean that I have a chance with you?" A spark of life came back to him, reanimating his trademark animation, showcased by the sudden jump to the concrete. "I could sway you right off your feet, M. I've read plenty-a-self help books and subsequently taught myself to be quite the gentleman." Marcus had playfully pushed the other man's outstretched hand out of his face, shaking his head with a chuckle, when Wrench decided to add a polite bow. "What both Naomi and I are trying to say, is that unless you're able to love yourself, it's gonna be hard for other people to love you back. And I get it, you find it hard to open up on an emotional level, you don't like what's hiding under the mask and inside your chest .. And it's because of that, that you subconsciously rob people of a chance to fall in love with everything you keep hidden." 

The ash blonde put his tattooed arms on his hips. "I guess that makes sense." Both men content to leave the conversation at that - at least, for a few minutes. The silence penetrated by a bony arm planting its way in the dark hacker's side. "How many organs do you think I'd have to sell on the black market, to be able to afford a complete facial reconstruction?" 

"Man, you're whack!" 

"But I've seen them do it in Asia! I love finding those weird places on the web." The blonde chuckled. "Did you know there's this museum - right? - that collects and displays dicks of all kinds of different species." The other hacker rolled his eyes back further. "Man, what the fuck kind of weird shit do you google in your spare time?" 

"Anything but hardcore anime porn starring purple-haired Elves." Wrench unleashed a hard laugh, lowering his body down to a crouch just in time to evade a playful fist incoming.


	10. Ratdroppings in Botnet..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Epicuros - Interstellar. 
> 
> Yo, Defalt -- You came, you saw, and you left rat droppings all over Botnet when you accessed it before.. Idiot.
> 
> Also, am I the only one that experiences AO3's HTML-setup removing words from your text at random?  
> I swear to God, I double-check each and every one of my chapters before upload - and still find completely random words missing from the text..  
> What is up with that, AO3?

An aged had rubbed attentive eyes that were crushed under the weight of a suspicion-driven lowered brow. On the screen that had captivated his attention, it revealed internal information on a recently ingrained access-connection to the proxy-secured network encompassing the closed-off area. Kept in a blank state of not having been informed on the return of a disorganized masked computer jock, fueled this dread locked programmer to sense conjecture leaking from this suggestion. He reticently beckoned for his younger co-worker to join him - a thin layer of plastic dividing a pointer-finger from the data-cache underneath. "Tell me I'm not seein' things." Curious eyes roaming the information sequence initiated by the system's CPU, in search of the defined complication Ray alerted them to. "We're both looking at processed cache information, and temporarily stored network data." Josh spoke in a silent tone, that had been more of a mumble directed toward himself than Ray, really. 

The older man grabbed a hold of his cap's visor, tailoring the item of clothing to the allowance for a deeper shadow to swallow the eyes below the surface it covered. "Wrench's admin account has been accessed from an unknown location." Wrench wasn't a stranger to hiding an IP behind a proxied network connection, but the coordinates were kept within the geometric locations of the United States. This was mostly done to inform fellow DedSec members that an unauthorized connection to the network, was coming from his device. Since Botnet was created under the false guise of being a transparent proxy server, connection to it with High Anonymity servers were known to cause an erroneous error-message, that could be translated to an unknown access-breach. In layman's terms, admin access to Botnet had to be done under their personal proxy server's term and conditions, any NIC or MAC address number unknown to the network, including modified PCMCIAs, followed the pre-programmed command to treat said connection as a possible intrusion. 

Josh bit his lip. "You are starting to make me uncomfortable." He knew for a fact that the devices used by Wrench to access Botnet, shared MAC addresses of a familiar kind to the ones Botnet had been taught to recognize. Even with the possibility of Wrench generating random geometric coordinates within the proxy server, Botnet would be able to take over the connection and search for familiar MAC- or NIC numbers. It was simply impossible to access Botnet without a registered address. -- Ray pressed his hip up against the edge of the desk, an expression of deep calculation dancing in his brown irises. Josh had found himself motionless under the man's stern, fixed gaze, thus Ray took it upon himself to bring productivity to the table -- in the literary sense of the saying. 

"The IP that was picked up by Botnet came from Europe, somewhere in Poland." He pulled the desk chair closer. "Basic randomly generated coordinates." He grew silent as he eyed the still brunet standing in between the screen, and access to the keyboard. With a shake of the head, he grabbed the teen's small hips and moved him slightly to the side. An intense stare of invasion lit up Josh's hazel eyes, made all the more apparent when he shielded his torso with a pair of crossed arms. "High Anonymity proxy server." His eyes met Ray's. "Sorry." The older man found no grounded reason to that apology, and decided to put it to an end with the addition of a smirk of his own. "Don't apologize if you haven't a clue what you're apologizing for, kid." Josh sent him a glare when he had turned back to the computer monitor - he chose to ignore it. "Is Botnet still unable to distinguish transparent proxy IPs from Anonymous ones?" 

Josh shook his head in such a firm way, that it almost seemed as if he had wanted to lift the weight of his own frustration onto the very movement itself. "Wrench added a detection software that temporarily denies user-access to the network, the moment it picks up on unknown proxy-types." The young man added a frown. "Distorting proxies scramble the IP address, which Botnet is not yet able to understand - thus it grants momentary access. And High Anonymity proxies.. those are a death sentence." Ray eyed the green-hooded engineer, the thoughts that had formed in his head running a mile per minute. Wrench's admin account had been accessed through a proxy-based layer of protection. And with Botnet's inability to properly understand proxy networks to the core, the most logical explanation to the unauthorized connect would have been a connection coming from a High Anonymity proxy. But it made very little sense for Wrench to have not noticed unwarranted usage of his account. The older hacker deepened the frown that was carved onto his brow. "That's a problem, Josh.." 

"Y-yeah .. But Sitara and I are working on it." He dropped his hands in addition to his frustration. "It's just.. harder than anticipated. It involves the risk of denying a large percentage of DedSec forum user-base access - since most of them are dependent on Anonymous servers." The brunet threw his head back with a groan. "We either disable proxy server stability and gather only secure IPs, or we don't do anything with the risk of .. unauthorized access in the event of a security breach". 

"Y'all using an ALF?" 

"We debated on using a proxy based firewall, but that would limit traffic and data-transfer." Josh paused for a moment. "Safer, yes .. But at the expense of speed and functionality." He stiffened under the intense stare from the older man. "I know it sounds like a rookie mistake, but --" 

"-- We need to get to work. This isn't something we can casually gloss over. Fuck, you're basically inviting hackers to exploit this server weakness." 

Both man turned to the rounded table centered in the room, two laptops swiftly opened, and pale-skinned faces greeted by cold-hue based illumination. "Go to work then." Ray spat, racing his fingers over the lengths of the built-in keyboard. "I'll have to talk to Wrench about this later. If someone managed to hack into his admin account, I doubt he's gonna be happy to hear that." A pair of hazel eyes peered over the edges of two lined up laptops positioned perfectly across from each other. "How did you even.. find out about the breach?" 

"I've been snooping around in Wrench's personal data. Y'all were trippin' he might have been dead, so .. I tried to find traces leading back to him -- in his personal data and CPU." He clicked his tongue. "Don't you dare gimme that look, kid. We're hackers, that's what we do - we invade privacy. The end justifies the means."


	11. A night of lethargic and sweat-infested nonsense..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Epicuros - Augumented Cyberlounge Vol.2
> 
> Oh, Jay, you're hard to love .. but even harder to hate. 
> 
> OBEY THE RAT ! ~~(8:>

Jay repositioned himself on the box spring mattress - never quite managing to prevent his glistening skin from coming into contact with the thick fabric of the wool duvet. Not even the setting of the sun had showered San Francisco with much needed relief - the air still thick, submerging California in a breath taking heat wave. He combed a few strands of sweat-drenched hair back, and threw a sigh into the hollow abyss that was his bedroom. Forced to turn off his computer, as to prevent the built up heat generated within the CPU, to spread out and adhere to the, already smothering, lack of humidity within the air. A short, summarized news article mentioning a disturbance assumed to have been by the hands of a protest march in Dolores Park, made a grin embrace the shape of the man's pierced lips. California enjoyed its fair share of protesting - the majority running on short fumes when police got involved, the smaller portion thriving to their fullest extent with said law enforcements being the driving motive to their protest. Though this time it played out to be nothing more than a meaningless protest against employment-rates, a growing shortage on available jobs, and the expected gender-based payment discrimination. With a chuckle fresh on his lips, Jay threw the phone aside, and pushed himself up - and the timing had been absolutely perfect - an array of thundering knocks were ravishing the varnished entrance door to his main apartment. 

The man hoisted his toned legs in a pair of lagoon sweatpants he had picked up off the floor. He had only recently moved to the neighborhood, and with paranoia guiding him along every step of the way - the address to said location was distributed to two sources only: the San Francisco government, and Reginald O'Neal. It was this fact that led him to the safe assumption of finding the latter on the other side of the door. A single turned doorknob, and indeed, a pair of heavily draped eyes stared right back at him. The feeling of comfort returned to Jay, and once he flashed a trademark grimace in the blonde man's general direction, had he placed an arm against the wooden doorframe mere inches above his height. "Unless you're selling vanilla flavored ice, I don't buy from door-to-door salesmen." An eye roll ensued as his response of choice when said blonde had nudged him out the way with a shoulder, and he turned to close the door instead. He followed the unexpected visitor in his footsteps, leading him back to the bedroom area. Far too impatient to give the blue-haired hacker the chance of addressing the matter by himself, Wrench hiked toward him, leaving just the bare amount of room between them, to ensure both were rendered able to breathe in their own air supply. "Ray noticed that the IP used during my admin account's last log-in, was located in fucking Poland!" 

Jay exhaled a grunt of annoyance visible to the blonde - then walked past him to sit back down on the mattress. "The problem being?" His words wouldn't have been laced with as much self righteousness, if it wasn't for cigarette he had lighted up so casually. "The one Sitara used before I was given access came from Thailand." He put the marijuana leaf-decorated lighter down on the make-shift nightstand, slyness coating his every move. "Welcome to the wonderful world of randomly generated proxy IPs." The usage of random IPs wasn't the issue, it was the mere idea of Jay dismissing the words of advice Wrench had given him prior to admin-access handover. The blonde raised a foot up, planting it against the plastic container doubling as a nightstand. "I told you I always base my IPs in America -- And DedSec knows this." A cloud of smoke rose up to follow the sharp lines of Jay's face, and with a grin still displayed on said features, his voice pierced right through it. "Well, that's just a waste of time and effort. What's the use in that? The IP is already masked, who really gives a shit where it it is located?" Something about the lax tone of voice made Wrench snap. "Because it's less obvious than an IP based in fucking Europe! Fuck me!" 

A bead of newly formed sweat trailed down Jay's chest, but the man never made the effort of wiping it. "You are aware that I traced back to IP nodes and ports within your Botnet, that took me to geometric coordinates located in China, Russia, France, and Egypt - of all places - right?" Two pools of blue met. "Your attempts at being subtle within a network you helped create, are in utter vain. So, I figured: why manually set up an area-based IP, if I could just easily balls to walls it and still get a liable connection? Your network has been jumping from location to location all this time anyway." With a grimace matching the hint of mischief in his eyes, Jay pulled the blonde engineer closer and next to him. "If your friends get suspicious, just tell them it was a simple error in data-translation. Just, eh, tell them Botnet confused its own main network IP with the one attached to your admin-account, the moment you manually set up a connection." The man added an affirmative nod to that statement. "They are gullible enough to go with that. Especially after I discovered Botnet's, hilarious, inability to separate Transparent Proxy servers from Anonymous ones." Wrench beamed at him, and spoke through gritted teeth. "Botnet is still at an early stage of development." 

"Once more proving that 2018 DedSec is a fucking joke!" He reached over for the ashtray, tapping off some excess ash with a finger. "Way to be the hacker's little bitch. Fuck me - you guys literally kneel down on all fours, waiting for any hacker to burry their dick in your anus." Jay's attitude towards the revived hacktivist community known as DedSec, had very little motivation nor reason to change anytime soon. And it had nothing to do with the fact he had molded himself into one of Chicago's most feared Red hat hackers - it was a mere case of DedSec providing very few achievements to dethrone him. Sure, there had been a handful of small data-leak setbacks, but for the most part, DedSec had only successfully managed to prevent things from happening, rather than being the reason something had happened, or was happening. And for members of a hacking-community - that was laughable. Jay nudged Wrench with a peace offering found in the shape of a cigarette, which the blonde engineer was more than eager to accept. He let the older man light it before he spoke again. "You're gonna be the end of me if you keep being this sloppy, Jay. I gave you more credit than that, man.." He exhaled a puff of smoke, tracing its ascent for the roof with blue eyes. "I fucked my own friends over by giving into you - and the moment they find out and trace all of it back to us, I'm a fucking dead man." 

"So much for 'the magic of friendship', huh?" Chuckling, Jay pressed some of his body weight down onto Wrench's small shoulder. "They shouldn't be pissed at you at all. After all, I'm not messing with them. All I want, is Kenney. I honestly couldn't give a shit less about those little script kiddies fucking around in a dark basement in their free time." It was then that dark blue eyes found a missing black hoodie, and most notably, a missing mechanical mask. Both men reclined on the mattress for a handful of minutes, simply suffering and gritting through the intense buildup of heat in the room. 

"You're greatly underestimating DedSec, Jay. And it will come around to bite you in the ass." 

"Meh, I'll gladly take that risk, kid. Luckily, I have very little to lose." He turned to look at blonde' relaxed body sprawled on top of a blue duvet. "But, eh .. How exactly did Kenney find out about the rerouted IP linked to your admin account?" The return of mother's finest shit eating grins. "What great friends you have to violate your privacy like that. I am truly touched." The 36-year old removed his tanned arm from its position on his moist forehead, and brought it back over to the ashtray -- presenting the cigarette with a temporarily new home. "You know what the problem is with you, Reggie? You allow people to emotionally manipulate you - to the point that you overlook a privacy violation and pass it off as a normal, every-day occurrence." 

"Those living in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones." Wrench looked over at Jay, but only found the man's protruding spine. "Need I remind you that you violated my privacy with an act of equal measure? You have no fucking right - at all - to give Ray any shit for violating anyone's privacy." It hadn't been entirely incorrect for Wrench to make that assumption. But was he supposed to not take advantage of a security system exploit? No person within their right mind would remove a piece of candy from a hungry child.. "But I'm not pretending to be your friend. As we stand, we are business associates, occasional fuck buddies, and two poor and damaged souls sharing a troubled past." He then leaned back on the mattress. "Not that you'd care, but I learned that Kenney remained in contact with Pearce." He paused to snort at the mere mention of the Chicago Vigilante. "There is no use in me even trying to trace that fucker. Like I said, he's a master in the craft of running and hiding. But it did give me an idea." 

"You were right about me not caring. It's too hot in here.."

"But I thought you liked my stories. You've proven that to me not too long ago." He pushed himself up from his current position, only to shortly after drop himself atop the blonde's flat abdomen. "I was considering using Pearce as bait. I imitate an outgoing message from Pearce, get Kenney to clamp down on it, and subsequently lure him into the rat's lair." 

It failed to impress the blonde engineer. "You need Pearce's location in order for you to mimic an outgoing message from his IP." 

"And that's where you are only partially correct. All I need .. is a BEF. Which just so happens to be one of my favorite engineered software toys. Pearce has been ghosting ctOs' network servers - emphasis on servers - for years. A hidden network within a transparent one - and all I need to do is .." Jay brought a hand up to the blonde's small chest, walking two fingers over the white fabric of Wrench's shredded top. ".. turn on the rooted GPS and walk right inside." He brought his palm down, allowing it to rest on the blonde's chest. "Remember when I said that Pearce was a piss poor excuse for a hacker? He still is, and that gives my brain all the natural advantages it needs. I wear my black hat with pride." 

Wrench looked up, to be met with a pair of determined eyes and a grimace that could scare away little children. He smirked at just how ridiculous Jay looked in the moment. "A bit too much pride if you ask me, and it will end up with you cutting corners. You're too damn cocky, Jay." 

"How could I not be? Reginald, baby, you haven't seen the full extent of my power. And I'll personally see to it that you never will - because just the mere mentioning of my name, makes my poor victims piss themselves - and I love it!" Wrench watched the man's hand travel down to his crotch, grabbing a hold of it and giving it a few tugs. "Power horny? You can bet your tight, little ass I am! And don't tell me you're above it. All of those fuckers you got to piss themselves through smart hacking jobs, and the many undeserving computer systems you absolutely destroyed from the inside out -- I just know that alone made your dick hard as a damn rock." 

Not a complete lie, either. "Birds of a feather flock together, my masked friend."


	12. Rekindled spirits..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listening to: Memphis May Fire - Beneath The Skin (Acoustic)
> 
> This one was rushed, and it shows. My apologies, not that it matters that much. There's a non-existing reader base that follows this work, so no harm done.  
> I'll leave perfection to the more popular works, they actually gather the amount of eyes needed to point out the obvious errors and mistakes.
> 
> PS: It has been so damn hot lately, I'm literally dying in my apartment. I sweat up a damn storm, and showering every hour is a waste of water.  
> Summer ... why?

A gentle breeze moved through the commercial-signs lit streets of sunny San Francisco. It had been welcome now that humidity had returned to the air at last. It had lasted for the duration of one agonizingly smothered week, but the week's end kind enough to offer alleviation. As wrench sped up the pace of his thundering feet - guiding himself through a gathering of sports fans, he was met with a few greetings of annoyance. A single, grease-oozing hotdog was even thrown in his direction, but luckilly had missed by a few inches - sent to crash down to the pavement below with a squashed 'thud'. It only encouraged him more to put the pedal to the metal. As he ran down the crowded streets, flickering neon signs and the odd vehicle's blaring headlights ghosted over his maneuvering frame. The speed of his train of thought acclimated to the speed in which his legs carried him - rendering the man far too indifferent to even notice. 

Cool circulated air filled the borderlands of the - downtown San Francisco located - hackers pace. It aided the creation of the most pleasant of working conditions, a wholehearted contrast to the weather conditions that had marked the bustling city streets outside. Blinking stand-by lights present in the background, accompanied by the monotone sound of the air conditioning's confined, spinning blades. Josh had been glued on to his laptop ever since Ray gave him the order of reviewing Botnet's software makeup. Said review had taken up an entire week's worth of time, with no fruition. But the man was keen to find the kink in the cable, regardless of the wasted time and effort. There was a part of him that wanted to show ever-present loyalty to his fellow DedSec members, whilst another aimed to impress the legendary hacker known as Raymond Kenney. 

A soft knuckle kissed the metal exterior of the entrance door, the sound just fierce enough to rouse Josh from a software code-induced trance. An eyebrow arched upon hearing the subtle sound resonate - he wasn't expecting any company, and Sitara had passed up on dropping by for the day. He wasn't sure where Wrench was hiding out, then again, he never had a clue as to what that wild card was up to. Even so, both knew the access code to the hacker space, so that pretty much eliminated the possibility of it being either one of them. After breathing out an elongated sigh, Josh got up and made his way up the stairs. The painted face that greeted him upon the opening of the door, familiar, yet equally as unforeseen. The man's heart sunk in to his feet, and for a split-second, he found himself cursing Wrench. 

"Wrench ran his mouth about the hangout." 

The look on Naomi's face rich in apologetic realization. "He asked me to hang out, but forgot one small detail: the location." Typical Wrench - running his mouth without even the littlest idea of where the words took him and others. 

"Not to be mean," Josh started. "But couldn't you have gone on a date at 10Donut's?" 

"Lillian closed shop to visit family back in China." The woman brushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear. Josh's disinterest in her visit had been clearly painted on his features - and he most likely wasn't even aware of the look of annoyance he was beaming down on her. "I'm sorry to interrupt. I can wait up at Gary's Games & Glory if you want." The man eyed Naomi for a moment, then shook his head when she pointed a thumb towards hallway leading back to Gary's shop. "N-no! ..I'm .. sorry for being rude." He took a step aside. "Come in." After he pushed the heavy door back into its mechanics, he followed his guest down the stairs. "Aside from myself, there's no one around, though."

The dark haired woman put a maroon colored shoulder bag down on the table Josh had seated himself at again. "You mean Wrench isn't here?" Her hazel eyes wandered down the vast surface of the intensely decorated hacker space. "He left when I got in here, and I don't know where he ran off to. Sorry, I can't be more of any help." His gaze returned to fix itself on the contents displayed on his laptop. "But I have work to do, so if you don't mind." 

"No, that's alright, Josh. Go on ahead. I'll just wait here then." She slowly moved through the hacker space, having no other means of killing time than to drink in her surroundings. Luckily for her, DedSec had its fair share of creative souls with a burning desire to vocalize themselves through the craft of art. "I love the decoration you have going on down here. Very loud and colorful, it's a perfect contrast to you as a group." When Josh first introduced the room to his friends, they had protested with the passion of a thousand burning fires. But it had been Sitara who eventually took matters into her own hands. She got Horatio just hyped up enough to mark the walls with meme- and steampunk-related logos, that he addition of her own stylized artwork ended up perfectly complimenting the diversity in art styles. The old computers and machinery were an idea of Wrench's - after all, a hacker space is incomplete without devices on which we execute said hacking. Josh just let them go at it, he had very little patience for art. So he decided that the 'should I?' outweighed the 'Could I?' He told himself that even if he was able to contribute with a little doodle on the wall of his own, that didn't mean he should contribute with a little doodle on the wall of his own. His eyes followed Naomi as she came to a stop behind Wrench's cluttered workbench - and he picked up on the subtle movement of her mouth corners. 

"This must be Wrench's." Her hands followed the wooden surface area. "It looks exactly like the one in his garage." When she continued to follow the workbench's shape, she was bound to end up standing in front of a corkboard, mounted to the wall near Wrench's work area. But more importantly, the picture of a woman pricked onto its bottom left corner. The fact that it was a picture of herself wasn't what brought a smile to her face - no. It were the three small hearts that were drawn on the picture in red permanent marker. Her eyes lingered on the picture, longer than she realized. "He really is a sweetheart." 

Everything was put into overdrive again, a moment of serenity passed. Accelerated footsteps drumming on metal steps, balled fists swaying in an equally as chaotic sense. It was silent when said feet reached the end of the staircase, but that silence had been silence before the storm - that storm being a body crashing on to the centered table's wooden leaf. "You need to help me!" Josh displayed utter confusion to the sequence of actions that had taken place, and was now left with Wrench's mask expressing the man's desperation to its best know-how. "I have agreed to meet up with Naomi, and I don't fucking know where to take her!" Josh sighed, but the blonde's mouth kept going. "I've run around town like an nut job, trying to find a calm and, perhaps even romantic, place that she might like, but with this entire football craze going on lately.. - everywhere I look, there's a crowd of wasted assholes ruining the mood!" The brunet's gray eyes darted between the dark-dressed hacker and the dark-haired woman, before mouthing an uninterested: _that's poor planning._

And poor planning was a given that Wrench was unable to run from - as desperate his attempts may be. It had been what had initiated the first 'date' that was ever arranged between them. Naomi brought the idea to the table, and Wrench, without giving it much consideration, picked it up and ran with it. The garage, their meeting point, 10PM the agreed time. But upon Naomi's arrival, the garage was left deserted in swallowing darkness, and the focus point being a masked rebel, nowhere to be found. If it hadn't been for Naomi making a pit stop at a local 7/11, both would've ended up spending the remainder of the night in solitude. Wrench, being the awkward mind that he was known for, had fabricated the ridiculous idea of gathering 'romantic sweet's from a cheap convenience store. Had he not been so intent on showing his appreciation for Naomi, and had she not been such a darn sweet tooth craving for nougat at the unholy hour of 10:19PM, their accidental run-in would have never taken place. Naomi was able to laugh it off, finding Wrench's need to treat her like a gentleman endearing. And this helped her get acquainted to Wrench's quirky mannerisms. Any other woman would've felt stood up, and had marched right back home. After all, 10PM is 10PM, but Wrench's intent was far too precious to allow a silly thing like pride to reign. 

Chuckling, Naomi crossed her arms. "The hacker space is good enough, Wrench." The woman's voice caught the blonde's attention within a heartbeat - the clear, yet understanding tone to it, certain to quickly give away the identity of its owner. The man's head darted to the right, and within seconds he had pushed his body down the edge of the table, guiding his clumsy feet down to the ground. "Naomi! You're already here!" The mask that hid an expression of distress, translating said emotion to a simple ' >< '. "Good - that's good!" He found himself struggling to maintain his composure, seeing no other option to hide it, than to accept the embrace she had offered. 

"You're such an awkward, little man." 

"Watch the spikes!" 

"I'm used to your rough edges already." she spoke in a laughing voice when they broke apart. "So, you wanted to take me some place romantic, huh?" 

Wrench immediately returned to the motion of nervously fidgeting with the thin, leather bracelets adorning his slender wrist. "I guess I did.. Unless you are in the mood to go see a movie or something - then I'll follow your lead. I mean, anything can be fun if spent in good company, right? Not that I wanted to go somewhere nice to distract from the fact that you are not good company! That's not at all what I meant. I just thought.. you might apprecia--" 

A brain on the verge of an internal meltdown, halted in its course of acting out basic survival commands, by nothing more than a simple hand squeezing its own. "Wrench, you're rambling again." Naomi said calmly, warmth radiating from her dark eyes. Though it was some kind of entertaining to see Wrench manually shut down, she thought the poor soul needed release. The blonde's gaze trailed to the woman's hand resting in his, and his heart wanted nothing more than to explode - coating the insides of his heaving ribcage with fleshy bits of red. "I am?" The expression on his mask went blank. "Yeah, I think you're right - I am." He drew in a some air. "Sorry 'bout that." Naomi shook her smile-ridden head once more. "No need to apologize for it. It's simply a part of the total 'Wrench' package."

LED-lights sprung back to life on the poly-texured visor, this time in the shape of a 'O o'. "For real? .. Yeah! That must be it! I'm not being socially-backwards, I'm ju--" Another reassuring squeeze. "You are just being yourself. And I love it." The prior expression was soon to be replaced with a more confident ' ^ ^'. "Thanks, Nay."

"I should be the one thanking you. There is only one human-sized Wrench on this planet, and it has chosen to show me its true self." She let go of the man's hand, and instead leaned in closer. "As socially awkward as that self might be." Her position then reset itself and he looked around the hacker space one final time. "So, what activities does this awesome place have to offer?" 

"Internet and cable." Josh chimed in, only to make his departure consequent to the LED-born glare coming from Wrench.  
With Naomi left to chuckle in to her fist, the blonde returned to their conversation. "What he said. We could explore the vast landscape of the internet, or .. we could go full couch-potato mode and catch a movie." The dynamic between Wrench and his friends had always fascinated Naomi, especially the brother like bond he shared with Marcus Holloway. She firmly nodded. "Sounds alluring. And, what kind of movie might that be?" A tattooed hand circled its digits around the woman's wrist, to gently guide her toward the media space. "Cyberdriver 2 and 3. Anything including and past 4 is .. mediocre at best." Naomi analyzed the intricate media setup that Wrench was toying around with, not being a whizkid herself in the field of technology. 

"Alright, turn it on." 

Wrench froze in place. "Wait, what?" He turned his head to the degree he could send a look over the edge of his shoulder. "You actually like Johnny Siska? No other chick I've met before has been into Cyberdriver." The dark-haired woman motioned toward the DVD-player, indirectly telling Wrench to continue setting things up. "I'm not like any other chick you've met before."


	13. A moment of serenity within chaos..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Playlist: Bushido - Janine (German) I Kari Jobe - You are For Me I Maki Watase - Big Brother (Crush Remix - Japanese) I Du Fehlst Mir - Pietro B. ft. Kyra (German - Italian) I Christian Linke - No Tomorrow (English cover) I Old School - Hedley I My Spiral - Hatsune Miku (Japanese) I Hoobastank - The Reason I Niemand Hört Dich - Nevada Tan (German) I White Knight - Kamui Gackpoid Whisper Append (Japanese) I Bushido ft. Phillipe - Wahrheit (German) I Leave Out All The Rest - Linkin Park
> 
> You know that experience of putting on some music in the background to aide you in finding a suitable mood and feel for what you've decided to sit down to write, and for the most part, you just end up getting distracted and singing/humming along to the lyrics, rather than actually getting anything on paper?  
> Perhaps I should go back to listening to instrumentals only, ain't nothing much there to vocally distract you..
> 
> ALSO: Why does AO3 find it necessary to de-european-ilize my English? It auto corrects potatoe and tomatoe to the written from without the 'e' at the end.  
> I mean, I'm not yet at the stage of adding a 'u' to 'color or flavor' - so why do you feel the need to Americanize the few European-English themed words?

Televised explosions, revving engines roaring aloud as they raced down gravel roads, and enthusiastic sounds of praise, reduced to become nothing more than background static with the enlargement of the hacker space filling up with occupants. Wrench was too captivated by the action scene that played out on the HD television screen - and Naomi had grown too relaxed amidst the mess to even bother finding interest in her changing surroundings. A stack of dented pizza boxes drenched in leaking grease were tossed on the table, directly interfering with Josh's immediate work space as they toppled on top of each other and haphazardly spread over the table's surface. 

"I caught myself in a good mood, and thought to myself: might as well feed my kiddies for a change." 

Josh had almost succeeded in returning to an undisturbed work attitude, when a second item was dropped shortly after. A white, plastic bag had joined its cardboard companions on the table, all of which absorbed the strong beams of light neighboring- and looking down on them. 

"Took you long enough." Sitara said with a smirk, seating herself on the table's rounded ege, hands eagirly peeling one of the boxes open. "No beers, though. The football game caused many stores to be out of their beer supply - can you imagine?" she added mid bite into a point of grease dripping pizza. "So, I told old man Ray here, to stock up on the good doctor." The frustration that was left to build inside the green-hooded engineer, now made an attempt at slowly fleeting upon the mention of that description. He reached for the bag, head lowered as to take a closer look at the contents - and with an authentic smile he yelped. "Dr. Pepper!" Whilst she licked some tomato sauce from her lips, Sitara met Josh's eyes. "That's right, Joshie. When the king of beverages fails on us, the good doctor is called in to heal the poor and suffering souls." The crew had lost itself in their genuine enjoyment of greasy fast foods and sugar-filled beverages, just awaiting the moment a pair of highly-trained eagle eyes would find a disturbance in the force. 

"Guys.." Marcus said, directing a nod toward the media space, and simultaneously alerting the others to the overlooked presence of a movie-entranced pair. The intentions he harbored misunderstood however, guiding Sitara to the desire of claiming and redirecting their attention from the screen to herself. "Yo, guys. Pizza and the good doctor!" The words didn't take long to register in the masked man's mind, and with a, clumsy, backwards roll, removed himself from the media area. Fast footsteps lead him to masterfully baked dough - picking one up and holding it up in the air above him. "God exists .. and he is baked dough swimming in a river of grease and tomato sauce." 

Realizing his plan had failed spectacularly, Marcus motioned the dark-haired woman left behind on the couch to trade places. She eagerly complied to the request, and soon found herself chewing on a slice of pizza as well. The dark-skinned man took a moment to take in the chaos that was DedSec, and felt he might benefit more from taking in a slice of fresh air instead. With a freshly lit cigarette dangling between his lips, the man took a moment to take in the beauty of the landscape. Or to what extent a skyline of skyscrapers and commercial businesses could be considered to be a portion of land or an escape for that matter. He was grateful for the notable temperature drop when a gentle breeze lifted up the pair of earplugs that dangled over the edge of his jacket's collar. Summers were intense up in San Francisco and mother nature was sure to make all aware of that. As he breathed out a cloud of toxic fumes, his mind wandered back to stocked memories of past events. And with his mind covering such spacious grounds, came a more contemporary memory. Wrench had been so torn apart by the news on the discovery of a suicide victim on ctOS' acreage. And apparently it had been a person that stood close to him, despite him never before having mentioned anything of the sorts. Perhaps it was still somewhat of a sensitive topic, and Marcus couldn't hold the act of silence against him. 

Footsteps neared in a sneaking fashion, halted to morph into a body occupying the empty space beside Marcus. He made no effort of moving out of the way, seeing little reason to do so. There was an unspoken easiness found within being this physically close to each other, and it was wise to be left unaddressed. Marcus was happy enough to have witnessed Wrench's attempt at maintaining a friendship with Naomi, even if that moment of bonding was met with a case of abrupt interruption. He finally dared to meet a pair of LED-shaped eyes. "I'm sorry, man." The burnt up cigarette butt met its rough end on the hard concrete. "I tried to get them to bounce, but they weren't having any of it." 

"Don't beat yourself up over it." Wrench brought a knee up to serve as a resting area for the can of Dr. Pepper held in his hand. "Believe it or not, having the chaotic dynamic of DedSec around eases my communication with her." He grew silent, only to break out in a soft and self-aware chuckle. "Though, it might be in my best interest if I learned to not value fast food over women." 

They both sat there for a moment, the dim glow of the flickering lights that occupied the vast night sky coloring their frames with white-shaded shadows. The air pleasantly cool, and the faint volume of the city-based sounds blending in perfectly. It were moments of authentic serenity, that were fully broken down to easily accessible layers of appreciation. 

"Are you still positively sure you want to give up on her yet?" 

"I'm so bad at wrapping my head around the concept of love, that I honest to God have no idea." 

Marcus carefully dropped his head against the blonde's, never once tearing his gaze away from the view they were treated to. "Whatever decision you make, I stand with you."


	14. I dream of Chicago..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I've uploaded anything to this series, but I'm currently going through some rough times,  
> and I don't really feel like writing much of anything - I don't feel like doing anything, to be honest.
> 
> But I really enjoy this series in particular, and I want to end it eventually.  
> So, I hope you are still enjoying this one - don't be a stranger, and drop a comment, telling me what you think.
> 
> ALSO: I have been working on some music in my spare time, 2 WRENCH-based remixes,  
> and a MAX FEELS one for Aiden Pearce.
> 
> Links here:  
> Aiden Pearce - Waiting for a Sign : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt1wmW4r4mQ  
> WRENCHFUSE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8HpxuP1Be8  
> Wrench, Damn Right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lt8xHt9Ze8  
> MY HARDWARE: https://youtu.be/Vcr1zH5PxN8

The diner was nothing short of greasy and dirty, with the question remaining on how in the world health inspection hadn't given it the finger whilst taping a notice of closure on the glass windows. The customers weren't any the better, as they looked like the likely civilians found in the lower-income areas of the Bay area. Then again, nobody would start a war over a 3 dollar happy meal, or a 1 dollar burger with fries and a shake.. Wrench mindlessly guided his wrist in subtle rotations, the small plastic fork held in his hand pierced the deep-fried shells of fries on occasion - yet were never brought to his tightened lips. His body had no desire for greasy food, and his mind seemed to subconsciously block out the mere idea of consumption.

"The wretched Wrench has returned to a homegrown lagoon of agony."

Exhaling a sigh, the ash-blonde dropped the small fork down and let the palm of his hand cup his chin. Jay licked some excess soda from his pierced lips, then placed the can back on the table - his dark eyes scanning the facial features of his younger companion attentively. Most of the man's food had remained untouched, and a part of him couldn't blame him. Lukewarm fries were a mere inch away from being repulsive.

"Do you remember the main physician that worked on the B-ward?"

Jay gave a curt nod of the head. "Dominic Carlyle - how could I not?" He eyed the eating utensil in his hand for a moment. "When I close my eyes, I can still see the ravenous look on that man's face. His looming figure cloaked in an aura of natural intimidation, all of which thrived on the shadow-infested cages they stuffed you in."

Wrench bit on the inside of his lip. "His unwelcome touches always sent a wave of intense fear into Glenn." Icy blue pools quickly darted up to find a lagoon-colored pair "It left him fucked in the head.. Consumed by a paranoid commitment to shield me, each and every time Carlyle made an appearance."

The contents on the table shuddered upon a balled fist meeting its flat surface. "Hey! That fucking behemoth didn't deserve the insipid journey to death he enjoyed." The older hacker pricked through a few fries with his fork. "I'll be damned to give Blume the satisfaction of showing them just how crippled they rendered me -- And neither should you, Reg." He spoke, all the while his cheeks rounded from the nibbling. - Wrench sat there, simply taking in the words he had spoken prior. "At the very least they were kind enough to keep your sanity intact - that was a train wreck on your own accord."

Hearing the gentle, yet undeniable playful undertone to those words - Jay allowed his lips to curve into a small smile that lasted mere seconds, before his face straightened again. "Blume has enough enemies to ensure their inevitable downfall, Reg. One job at a time, remember?" He carefully brought his hand over to the food container which held the blonde's food, and gave it a docile push. "Don't let it spoil your appetite anymore." His fork pierced one single fry, and with a grin he brought it up to Wrench's lips - adding a satisfied nod when said man opened his mouth.

"You're right.. And I know that.. I almost believed that I had blocked it from my mind all together. And then Glenn's death.."

"Will not be another trivial life's end added to Blume's excessive resume. Which is partially why I have this massive hard-on for Aiden Pearce. Selfish dumbbell, but easy on the eyes. And - he gets the job done."

Wrench, honest to God, couldn't keep count on just how often Jay managed to bring up the name of the infamous Chicago vigilante - and with such ease. This no longer bordered the barrier threading on mere innocent admiration - Wrench had reason to believe these feelings had grown into something far more .. terrifying. But this was Jacob Markowicz we're talking about - terrifying and normal are synonyms regarding him. And though Wrench had heard plenty of tales about Aiden Pearce, there was quite a distance that separated the sunny sides of San Francisco from the bleak borders of Chicago. DEDSEC had a few run-ins with the man here and there, but most of the outgoing messages were constructed by Sitara's hand. Wrench kept his head and hands where they belonged - his build-up and break-down business. Though he remembered DEDSEC offering Pearce a final hand in the downfall of ctOS - the piercing sting of rejection left Sitara in a state of bitterness for weeks.

He looked up to find Jay finishing what remained of his meal. "I haven't had the pleasure of a vigilante face reveal." The black-hat hacker's brow raised, and the skin on his forehead exposed deep wrinkles. "In that case - imagine the guy from Brewed Delight near Dolores Park, in a polished leather trench coat. With some .. minor improvements."

"Brian? But he looks like a less Latin-Canadian version of Noam Jenkins." The blonde balled a fist. "Jery Barber man! Global's Rookie Blue!" A fist morphed into what should resemble a gun, and Jay nodded with a chuckle. "Exactly. Now visualize him to be more of a generic white dude - outside of an authority-based fetish detective movie setting."

Wrench blinked, then it hit him and his body relaxed. "Oh... A storm in a teacup." He cocked his head to the side a little. "Why would someone like you feel so drawn to a gray mouse?"

Jay wasn't the kind of person that would go above and beyond for something that could be found in large quantities. Especially when it came down to physical and emotional attraction - he succeeded in tracking down and luring in the gems among the rubble. Even in confinement within Blume, managed to wrap one of the leading female representatives around his finger. Not to mention the girl he was currently seeing when he first met him - He had shown him pictures, and despite the lewdness of some - it was hard to deny that she was something unique and unseen, alright. And from what he had heard about Aiden Pearce so far, Wrench had very little reason to believe this man was anything other than a regular do-gooder gray hat, wanting nothing more than sweet revenge and control.

"Because that gray mouse has a talent for teaching his metal baton to dance all over my tender body."  
The addition of Jay's high pitched voice roused the anarchist from his thoughts, and once he had re-entered reality, he shot a head of lagoon-blue hair a questioning look. "So, this is just a kink thing?"

Jay had casually brought his can of soda to his lips, only to pause as he went over his given answer in his head. "It might be, but it has to be more dependent on his sheer level of inner Batman." He took a large gulp, and savored the fizzy feeling of carbon-oxide bubbling on his tongue. "I have confiscated some of his personal audio-logs, and boy .. He has so much gravel in his voice, it makes you wonder how there's anymore left in the desert."

For a split second, the thought ofJay performing a sexual act on himself whilst listening to said audio-logs, popped into frame in Wrench's mind. Not that that was or ever would be an image he'd like to treat himself to. He allowed his fingers to engulf the curvature of his own soda can, and drank in the bright colors the label and logo held. "Too bad you left him in a state of Defalt-death assumption, otherwise he might be down for the idea of you milking his dick dry." He glanced up just in time to catch the sly and shit-eating 'you know what I'm talkin' 'bout' grimace coloring the black hatter's makeup. "Hmm, my cup of Irish tea. You know..-" He set the can back down, and leaned in closer - probably to create the illusion of keeping things more up close and personal with Wrench. Not that there was any need for that - the people around didn't seem to give a single shit about anything other then the phones clutched in their hands. "That reminds me of Richie Oakland - you knew that guy too, right? The little dude that Blume plucked right out of college, to claim the title and position of chief academic officer." The man shook his head. "None of that is relevant - normal looking fucker, nothing too special about him. As gray as they come, you know? But he sure had the dick-twitching talent of shaping his voice into the most motivating of moans."

Wrench flinched when Jay dropped both of his hands on the table leaf, and tried his very best to ignore some of the confused looks that were shot their way.

"He moaned like a bitch, squealed like a pig in heat, and .. he was untouched, for fuck's sake! I just had to make hay while the sun still shone, my brother in destruction."

On second thought, Wrench had to go back on his prior belief on Jacob having a distinctive taste for the macabre and unwanted - there were minor exceptions added to the mix. And God, Richard Oakland was a prime example of this core truth. Richard was a goodie-two-shoes type of person, who would rarely not abide by the rules. He was that typical cock-sucker, ass-kissing scumbag in school that made your blood boil and toes curl. He was always shrouded in an aura of perfection and sweet innocence - and it was exactly that what drew Jay to him. It didn't do anyone aside from Jay himself, any favors that he worked under Jay in the infrastructure of Blume and had to turn to him to teach him the ropes. And Jay was sure to teach him all the ropes could do .. Jay always had a keen sense of smell for fear, and he used it to his own advantage.

"It's starting to frighten me just how easily I am learning to wrap my head around your bull, Jay.." Wrench mumbled under his breath. He tore his gaze away from the can and locked eyes with an almost identical pair. "How does any of that relate to Pearce again? Or will I regret even asking..?"

Jay shrugged. "It's the opposite of comparing apples to oranges. Pearce looks like any other blue collar guy, but there's so much darkness lurking under that A++ grade performance of ignorant innocence. A feisty, vicious and power-hungry side to him that I wouldn't mind exploring." He leaned in, yet again. "He fucked Blume so hard in the ass, it was shitting through its mouth for 7 straight months."

"Not to go on a lim here, Jay .. But what gives you the idea that you're the gender of his preference?"

A grin sprung to life. "Every person has an underlying attraction to both genders. Those feelings are just waiting to be awakened. Pair that with a close-minded society dictating nonsense on gender-equality and sexual preferences, and it's all just a fucking chaotic blur of shit splatters on a community's perception." He brought his hands together - and the metallic bracelets produced a dull 'klang' when they touched in the movement. "But God, Reggie - can you imagine the powerful Chicago vigilante's pasty white body looming over your own? Your arms roughly pinned out of reach, more pressure added to your trembling wrists with each movement of struggling he detects. Chapped lips roaming the heated and sensitive skin on your neck, and strong, muscular hips pressed against yours." He took a moment to breathe, and ran his tongue over his lips. "While you try to steady your irregular breathing, you can sense the outline of his hardened cock resting against your thigh as he slowly presses into you. Using his weight to trap your squirming body under him - and a pair of intense, green eyes hungrily graze the sensitive mess that he has turned you into." Another pause, this time longer in duration. "And then there's the baton .. The cold sensation of metal wrapping itself around your heated, blushed skin. And you find yourself fighting back the needy noises your body produces in response. Then a first strike hits you - it's painful and you yelp like a little bitch, but you are unable to tear your gaze away from his intimidating presence. Bucking your hips upward, grinding your growing erection against his - in the hope he gets the hint and finally decides to touch you, but he isn't done teasing you just yet.."

Jay drew a big breath, and clammed his teeth down harshly on the fleshy part of his lower lip. "Fuck me.. I think I made myself hard.." Seated opposite from him, Wrench leaned back. "...Dude."

"As I previously mentioned, I'm not one for assigned gender roles in relationships - so the fun can be equally spread around. I prefer being a dom, but.. I'd sell my left nut to be put in a submissive position again, if only it was for Aiden, fucking, Pearce. I just know he hides a darker side to him." He turned back to his soda, rotating the can between the palms of his hands. "Sure, he comes of like a nice, down to earth guy - hand forced to do questionable things for the sake of his and his family's safety, but I can read between those blurred lines, Reg!" He took another sip, and it had happend in such quick succession, that Wrench barely had time to process the action. "Besides .. What straight man dresses in leather and uses a pocket-sized metal stick for assault? Hmm.." He added a nod. "Think about it. Take your time on that one, if you need to."

"For the love of whatever, stop describing your sexual fantasies containing the Chicago vigilante to me.. It's frightening, and that's just .. barely scratching the surface, Jay."

\- - -

That evening, 9:23 PM, sat.

"Wrench, Pearce took the bait. Thank God, for this bastard being a lone wolf, because if he were the social type that liked the idea of having a beer together for old time's sake, I'd be fucked."

Wrench looked up from the tiny screen of his trusty, old laptop. For some odd reason, it no longer surprised him that Jay managed to execute even the most ridiculous plans. He had actually found a way into Pearce' network and system - without his knowledge - and sent a number of coordinates through in his name.

Jay leaned back in the leather desk chair, stretching his spine and arms as he let out a content groan. "Like I said, I'm gonna start on cracking my fingers, then cracking ctOS' system." He shot the ash-blonde a stern look. "You will wait for my word before you set foot on their grounds, you hear me?"


End file.
